News / National
Bakers Inn employs 'dirty tactics' in bread war
02 May 2014 at 09:34hrs | Views
Innscor Zimbabwe's bread making subsidiary Bakers Inn has been accused for employing 'dirty tactics' in its fight for market dominance in the baking industry.
Accusations levelled against the bread maker include using the same corporate colours for bread packaging as that of rival company Lobels Bread, which is reportedly confusing consumers, in addition to refusing to retail Lobels' bread, in its Spar range of supermarkets.
Lobels Bread chief executive Ngoni Mazango said his company was disturbed with the design and new packaging of Bakers Inn's bread.
"We are concerned with the corporate colours that they (Bakers Inn) adopted in their new packaging for their bread.
"We believe it is similar to our corporate colours and this will definitely confuse the consumer.
"Competition deals with the quality of the products but when one duplicates another's corporate colours then the consumer is prejudiced," said Mazango.
Information reaching The Zimbabwe Mail has it that the 'war' between the two bread makers in fact went beyond the packaging tiff.
Sources said that Bakers Inn recently bought 80 000 pallets from a local packaging material manufacturer (name supplied) in a bid to starve other players.
"Bakers Inn bought about 80 000 pallets and it means for the next three months other players like Lobels Bread will be scrambling for pallets basing on the production capacity of the manufacturer of the pallets," said a source who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The Affirmative Action Group (AAG) president elect Chamu Chiwanza slammed Bakers Inn for precipitating an uneven playing field with other players in the bread making industry through selective stocking of bread in its grocery division.
"We have noted with concern the tactics being employed by Bakers Inn to elbow out their competitors in the baking industry.
"We learnt with disgust that retail outlets like Spar Groombridge and Athienitis are only stocking Bakers Inn bread and Proton. We all know the origins of Proton's major shareholders and that is unfair practice.
"Case in point is its 'war' against Lobels Bread and as AAG we call for the intervention of the Industry and Commerce ministry."
"It is clear that the move to use the same corporate colours for competing entities is a ploy to confuse the market," added Chiwanza.
Asked to respond to the allegations, a Bakers Inn general manager referred this publication to Innscor group corporate affairs manager Musekiwa Kumbula. Kumbula demanded questions in writing, which he failed to respond to despite repeated calls to his office.
Bakers Inn reportedly occupies a 40% market share and produces 400 000 loaves per day while Lobel's Bread is operating at 70% capacity utilisation and has a market share of between 35-40%, according to Mazango.
Lobels almost collapsed under the burden of $14 million debt, but was rehabilitated by a consortium of banks led by the CBZ.
Accusations levelled against the bread maker include using the same corporate colours for bread packaging as that of rival company Lobels Bread, which is reportedly confusing consumers, in addition to refusing to retail Lobels' bread, in its Spar range of supermarkets.
Lobels Bread chief executive Ngoni Mazango said his company was disturbed with the design and new packaging of Bakers Inn's bread.
"We are concerned with the corporate colours that they (Bakers Inn) adopted in their new packaging for their bread.
"We believe it is similar to our corporate colours and this will definitely confuse the consumer.
"Competition deals with the quality of the products but when one duplicates another's corporate colours then the consumer is prejudiced," said Mazango.
Information reaching The Zimbabwe Mail has it that the 'war' between the two bread makers in fact went beyond the packaging tiff.
Sources said that Bakers Inn recently bought 80 000 pallets from a local packaging material manufacturer (name supplied) in a bid to starve other players.
"Bakers Inn bought about 80 000 pallets and it means for the next three months other players like Lobels Bread will be scrambling for pallets basing on the production capacity of the manufacturer of the pallets," said a source who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The Affirmative Action Group (AAG) president elect Chamu Chiwanza slammed Bakers Inn for precipitating an uneven playing field with other players in the bread making industry through selective stocking of bread in its grocery division.
"We have noted with concern the tactics being employed by Bakers Inn to elbow out their competitors in the baking industry.
"We learnt with disgust that retail outlets like Spar Groombridge and Athienitis are only stocking Bakers Inn bread and Proton. We all know the origins of Proton's major shareholders and that is unfair practice.
"Case in point is its 'war' against Lobels Bread and as AAG we call for the intervention of the Industry and Commerce ministry."
"It is clear that the move to use the same corporate colours for competing entities is a ploy to confuse the market," added Chiwanza.
Asked to respond to the allegations, a Bakers Inn general manager referred this publication to Innscor group corporate affairs manager Musekiwa Kumbula. Kumbula demanded questions in writing, which he failed to respond to despite repeated calls to his office.
Bakers Inn reportedly occupies a 40% market share and produces 400 000 loaves per day while Lobel's Bread is operating at 70% capacity utilisation and has a market share of between 35-40%, according to Mazango.
Lobels almost collapsed under the burden of $14 million debt, but was rehabilitated by a consortium of banks led by the CBZ.
Source - The Zimbabwe Mail
