Given the recent spikes in temperatures, cold beverages have become a hit. It is now typical to find vendors without drinking water simply because it would have been sold out. When you look at some of the prevailing temperatures you cannot help but wonder. I recall when I was much younger it was typical to hear of temperatures in their thirties in places like Kariba. Mostly it would be around 31 degrees Celsius when it got extremely hot in Kariba many years ago. Nowadays even in a place like Masvingo, where I am from, temperatures can now reach 38 degrees Celsius. Anyways, selling any cold beverage is now lucrative in Zimbabwe given those dynamics. In this article, I look at freezit making.

Approaches

Many people go for the easy route of retailing freezits. This article is meant to inspire you to explore the route of being the manufacturer. Being a manufacturer gives you the capacity to be either a wholesaler or retailer; even better you can be both. You probably might have seen different freezit sizes from those selling them. Years back it used to normal to have a long standard size but nowadays we have seen a dominance of the shorter ones. The ones common nowadays are roughly half of the ones we used to see years back. The logic is to make them more affordable, I believe, which helps push volumes. Freezit making machines generally have an allowance for you to adjust the length of the freezits.

Key Requirements

Obviously one of the key requirements is the freezit making machine. The prices differ mainly based on whether it is manually operated or it is automatic. Manually operated freezit machines tend to be cheaper than automatic ones. For example, a manual freezit machine can cost roughly anything from US$100 whereas an automatic one can cost US$2000 or more. The price is also higher when you factor in the number of lanes i.e. single lane or double lane. On average, a double lane would be double the price of the single lane. Your choice of a machine will depend on several factors some of which are price and production capacity amongst others. For instance, you can find manually operated freezit making machines that do 400 freezits per hour. There are also key ingredients required such as flavours, colourants, sodium benzoate, nitric acid, and water.

Human Resources

Human resources are informed by your intended scale of production. Freezit making is not really much of a labour-intensive type of process. You would only need to ensure you have expert hands-on the use of the freezit making machines. The level of sophistication of the machinery you will be using will also inform your human resources requirements. The less sophisticated they are the more hands you might need due to manual operations that will need to be done.

Capital

The main startup cost is the freezit making machine or machines – costs range from US$100 to US$2000 or above. You will need packaging material also – an important aspect of making your brand visible. Capital will also be needed for ingredients used in the making of the freezits. For instance, you will need certain concentrates depending on the type of formulations you will be using. Other costs will be informed by your operating environment. Typically freezit making can be done even from home, depending on the scale of production. If space is not adequate at home then looking for a space to rent might be an additional cost.

Market

The market for freezits is quite vast – all age groups love freezits. They are an affordable quick fix for when it gets too hot thus anyone can buy them. The informal sector is richly rife in Zimbabwe of which one of its biggest constituents is vendors. Most of these vendors include freezits as part of the products they sell so the market is always there. If you tweak on quality and taste I bet you that you can make a huge impression on the market.

Regulation

Freezit making is food processing venture so you must adhere to any regulatory requirements. If you are not sure how to go about kindly get in touch with food and nutrition experts. Things like quality assurance and proper disposal of waste are crucially important here too. Remember you are manufacturing a product humans will consume; you would not want scenarios which lead to disease outbreaks or even deaths. One sure way of making sure that does not happen is strictly adhering to regulatory requirements.

You can contact Frostline Solutions for expert help regarding food processing. They also sell freezit making machines so they can be your one-stop shop for all you need in setting up this business. You can get more information on them on their website. For your packaging material, you can check out Multiple Star for more information. They have a comprehensive range of packaging materials.