Kenyan firm to be first maker of pharmaceutical bottles in Africa

A Kenyan firm is bidding to become the first in Africa to manufacture pharmaceutical bottles.

Milly Glass SEZ Limited, a subsidiary of Milly Group of Companies, acquired a 15-acre piece of land at the Dongo Kundu Special Economic Zone, where they want to set up a new 80-tonne glass factory that would mainly manufacture pharmaceutical bottles.

Milly Glass SEZ director Mohamed Rashid on Thursday said they hope to break ground at the end of August 2026.

“We hope to be able to start production of amber bottles for pharmaceuticals by July 2027,” Rashid said.

He spoke when Trade CS Lee Kinyanjui toured the area.

Presently, all bottles produced in Kenya, Tanzania and Egypt are for the soft drink and beverage industry.

“There is nobody doing pharmaceutical bottles right now. All the pharmaceutical bottles are coming from India and Pakistan, but mainly from India,” Rashid said.

He said all pharmaceutical product manufacturers in Kenya have to import bottles, causesing them inconvenience in terms of freight, cost and time lost in some instances.

“One of them actually came and told us they were looking for pharmaceutical bottles made locally. Can you guys start doing that?’ That’s where the idea started from four years ago. The issue then was getting the land and we finally got the land last year in November,” Rashid revealed.

“It is a niche market, not being done anywhere in Africa.”

Rashid said once the factory is set up, he is optimistic more pharmaceutical investors will come in.

Currently, at least 25 containers with Sh16 million worth of pharmaceutical bottles come into the country every month.

However, this is not sufficient because the pharmaceutical range is much bigger, Rashid said.

He said the new factory will be producing about 300,000 bottles for the Kenyan, Tanzanian, Ugandan, Rwandan, Burundian markets and the Comesa region.

Amber bottles are used in pharmaceuticals to block up to 99 per cent of harmful ultraviolet (UV) and visible light, preventing the chemical breakdown of sensitive medicines.

These bottles are typically made from amber glass or light-filtering amber plastics like PET.

Rashid said the factory will also be producing flint glass for other packaging needs.

The factory will be equipped with state-of-the-art European machines imported from Germany, Italy and Switzerland.

“This factory is expected to create employment for at least 300 people directly and another 200 indirectly because of packaging material, raw materials, chemicals needed, drivers, among others,” Rashid said.

He noted that at least 100 small and micro enterprises will be created or empowered by the factory.

“We are grateful to Kenya Ports Authority, Special Economic Zone Authority and the Trade and Industry ministry and President William Ruto for supporting industries and making sure that industries are coming in.

“Industry is where we have to be today because industry is where you get the jobs. You can’t create jobs if you don’t gave industries in this country,” the Milly Glass SEZ director said.

The factory will be their second in the country.

The group is involved in juice processing and opened another factory in Malindi, Kilifi county, last month.

“As the family of Rashid, we are trying to invest more back at home, making sure that we create jobs for fellow Kenyans,” Rashid said.

He however said the government should create a proper access road to the factory site to enable movement of delicate materials to the site.

“The contract is ready to start work but with no access road, it will be costly to move materials because of the delicate nature of some of them,” Rashid said.

Trade CS Kinyanjui said the government will ensure a proper access road is done within the next few weeks saying such kinds of investments need government support.

He said Kenya has actively and deliberately structured its policies to suit investors from across the world.

Kinyanjui said the role of government is to create the necessary incentives for private sector to be able to invest and there is likely more investment to come from more private sector players.

“This area (Dongo Kundu) will become a major logistics site to cater for the domestic and export market,” Kinyanjui said.