Colcom CSR
Strategic Approach
Colcom Foods provides the market with quality, competitively priced fresh pork and processed meat products. Its vertical integration of best-in-class farms and solid manufacturing practices aims to produce products efficiently while adhering to international food safety standards.
This strategy continues to support a proudly Zimbabwean brand with high-quality and good-value products for its consumers.
Colcom Foods continues to expand its pig production to serve Zimbabwe’s growing pork consumption needs and ensure job security for its employees.
Colcom’s extensive product range supports a multitude of businesses within the community and provides key value items in the retail trade.
New Developments
Pork For Me" Advertising Campaign
In F2023. Colcom launched a two-year "Pork For Me" thematic campaign in response to extensive research on protein consumption and pork "share a plate" in Zimbabwe.
Innovation
Porta Farm
Triple C Pigs is in the final stages of a state-of-the-art piggery project at Porta Farm, scheduled for completion in F2025.
When fully operational, the project will operate as a 1 000-sow unit with a total pig population of 15 000, providing employment for 60 local community members.
Porta Farm Piggery
Mill Silo Expansion
In F2024, the company upgraded the Feed Mill section by acquiring new machinery to improve efficiencies and modernise the feed production process. Additionally, a new automated plant, including a hammer mill, was installed at the feed mill, which has resulted in improved milling capacity from 15T/hour to 24T/hour running in full automaton, with minimal human input required.
Multiplier Unit
Colcom is constructing a genetic mutiplier unit which will result in all breeders being managed from one site and we also see Colcom producing its own genetics to derisk on imported genetics.
Food Safety Standards
Food safety management is critical in Colcom’s production processes. The company’s commitment to providing safe food to consumers is maintained through rigorous control, monitoring and testing activities on raw material supply to processing activities, and finally to finished product display, ensuring satisfactory process control results.
External laboratories conduct verification tests periodically to verify the accuracy of the company’s internal results.
Colcom Abattoir was first certified to FSSC version 5.1 in June 2023, making the company one of the very few FSSC certified abattoirs in the country. FSSC 22000 incorporates ISO 22000 of 2018 and ISO22002 of 2009 management systems with sector specific prerequisite programmes as well as additional FSSC 22000 requirements. The Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI), an organisation that oversees food safety measures and certification worldwide, recognises it. In June 2024, the Colcom Abbatoir received its FSSC certificate for FSSC 22 000 version 6 which is an enhanced version of the certification scheme. The continued maintenance and improvement of our food safety management systems symbolizes the organisation’s commitment to manufacturing safe food for our customers.
Human Capital
Manpower Stats
By the end of F2024, the business had 1 345 employees across the Colcom group compared to 1 412 in F2023. This constitutes a 3% YOY reduction in headcount as efficiencies have been enhanced and labour intensive activities automated.
Manpower Stats
By the end of F2024, the business had 1 345 employees across the Colcom group compared to 1 412 in F2023. This constitutes a 3% YOY reduction in headcount as efficiencies have been enhanced and labour intensive activities automated.
Colcom Factory Canteen
Colcom Football Teams
A Kick for Team Spirit!
Colcom values teamwork beyond the workplace, fostering camaraderie and collaboration through its vibrant soccer team.
Each match strengthens relationships, boosts morale, and fosters a sense of community within the business.
Soccer
Triple C Pigs Football team plays in the Division 2B Soccer League. Triple C also has four other football teams at the out grower farms (Richlands, Lionshead, Villa Franca and Learig) which are also performing well in their respective farm leagues.
Netball
The Triple C netball team is also playing in the Netball Social League. This is a big motivation for female employees. Sponsorship of these various sporting disciplines is proving to be an effective tool in the maintenance of discipline at the workplace and the community as well. It also aids in fostering a culture that values teamwork, which boosts output and morale at work.
Volleyball
The Jaguars, Triple C volleyball team, is playing in the Mashonaland East Volleyball League. Talent Majore was a product of the team selected to be part of the National Volleyball Team, representing Zimbabwe in an international tournament in Germany in November 2024.
On-Site Staff Clinic at Colcom
Colcom invested in an on-site staff clinic, promoting employee well-being and productivity. The clinic offers routine check-ups, health screenings, and wellness programmes, empowering employees and their dependants to take charge of their health. This proactive approach helps detect potential health issues early and fosters a healthy work culture.
The clinic reduces time spent seeking medical care, enhancing morale and job satisfaction, allowing employees to focus on their roles.
Triple C Farm Clinic
Triple C Pigs continues running its own farm Clinic at Grasmere farm in Norton. The clinic is manned by a State Registered Nurse, reporting to the District Government Medical Officer.
The clinic caters for all Triple C farm workers and their families. In keeping with biosecurity standards, the clinic also provides emergency care to members of the local community.
In F2024, the farm clinic provided medical care to 5 670 staff members, their families, and members of the surrounding communities.
Sister Beverley Nyathi: State - Registered Nurse, Colcom Factory Clinic
Training and Development:
The company is committed to creating an environment that fosters employee learning, growth, and development. The company offers a range of training and development interventions that empower employees to excel in their roles, equipping them with the necessary knowledge, skills, and expertise for exceptional performance, innovation, and business excellence.
By promoting a culture of continuous learning, the business enhances employee engagement and retention, strengthening the collective ability to deliver outstanding results. In F2024, 9 749 man-hours were invested in training. Out of these, 46% of participants were women and 54% were men.
Colcom TOPP Programme
Colcom is committed to fostering the next generation of leaders and innovators through its Training Outside Public Practice (TOPP) programme. Current TOPP students have excelled in their CTA preliminary examinations over the past year and are now preparing for final examinations.
Children’s education for Triple C Farm employees
At Triple C, workers are assisted with the payment of school fees up to a maximum of three children, as well as the transport to and from schools.
Many women are employed at the Triple C Pigs farrowing sections. Most of these women are mothers with small children. To assist the employees with the childcare facilities, Colcom’s Grasmere Farm established a creche within its premises and staffed by teachers to work at the facility full-time, enabling the staff to concentrate on their duties. Currently, the creche at Grasmere caters to 40 children.
Corporate Social Responsibility, Sustainability and Partnerships
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Initiatives
Philanthropic donations
Colcom provides almost 1 500 meals to selected registered charities. These include children’s homes (Rose of Sharon, Chinyaradzo’s Children Home and Vimbainesu Children’s Home, Homefields, Felly Orphanage, Childline), support people with disabilities (Emerald Hill Home for Deaf, St Joseph, St Marceline, Jairos Jiri, St Christopher’s), Old Age Homes (Shearly Cripps, Athol Evans & Huisvergesig Old Peoples Home in Gweru), animal charities (VAWZ & SPCA), various fundraising events by these stakeholders and business partners.
Additionally, towards the end of F2024, Colcom partnered with the Meikles Foundation, which coordinates and facilitates corporate social responsibility initiatives that yield the maximum possible positive outcomes from a moral and ethical perspective, touching the lives of as many as possible in Zimbabwe. Colcom now supplies weekly pork to the foundation for use in the soup kitchen catering to the underprivileged. The new financial year will see further growth in this partnership.
Colcom meal with the Meikles Foundation soup kitchen
Contribution to Arts and Education
Zimstock Food and Music Festival has become a major event in Harare’s cultural calendar. Colcom has continued to partner with the organisers, and as the headline sponsor, it contributes not only to fundraising for Hellenic School but also brings music artists from both a local and international background to perform in Harare.
Colcom’s Daddy’s Day Care at Zimstock 2023
Environmental Performance & Sustainability
Colcom is committed to responsible environmental stewardship and sustainability as evidenced by its Environmental Management and Monitoring (EMMP) plan.
Identifying, preventing, mitigating and monitoring the environmental performance on resource utilisation (energy, water), air emissions, waste management and compliance with the applicable legal and other requirements.
The business monitors air emissions from its point sources, mainly the boiler and standby generators focusing on the key pollutants, such as particulate matter, Sulphur dioxide (SO2) and Nitrogen Oxides (NO2).
Colcom takes pride in noting that the Environmental Management Agency (EMA) rated all six standby generators in the blue category, indicating their environmental safety and low environmental hazard.
Coal boiler stack air emissions sampling
Colcom’s waste management plan is guided by the integrated waste management hierarchy. In F2024, Colcom recycled 269T of plastic and other waste through eliminated landfill waste disposal.
Several energy-saving and efficiency improvement programmes were successfully implemented during the period under review.
Daylight switches were introduced for all outside security lighting and all fluorescent tubes were replaced with energy-efficient LED lights. Lagging of steam & ammonia lines was done for energy conservation. In preparation for the Colcom substation upgrade with new efficient transformers in F2025, a new switch gear was installed.
Colcom’s multi-use bags
Colcom uses metered water to facilitate water footprint analysis and tracking. Colcom encourages employees who understand water conservation to promptly report water leaks for repairs.
In addition, in an effort to promote improved environmental practices, Colcom introduced environmentally friendly, reusable shopping bags in Colcom’s signature red colour towards the end of F2023. These bags are large and sturdy, designed to last up to six months, and this significantly reduces the use of plastic. These are now sold at cost, across all Colcom Shops as an environmentally friendly alternative to plastic bags.
Manure Donations
To empower the local communities and local farms around the piggery projects, Triple C Pigs donates large quantities of manure to the community as free organic fertiliser for use in their gardens, lawns and smallholdings. In F2024, Triple C handed out over 650T of manure to the communities across all the farms. The community is grateful for this free manure, as it facilitates food security initiatives within and around our local communities.
ZimEarthWorms at Lionshead Farm Manure Project
The new ZimEarthWorms manure project at the Lionhead farm is benefiting the local community in Goromonzi.
The ZimEarthWorms Initiative has established a mini-manure processing section in partnership with the local community to do earthworms and vermin compost in collaboration with the European Union and the University of Zimbabwe. They are also researching the production of fertiliser and drugs to treat diseases such as high blood pressure and diabetes. The local community already benefits from making earthworms and fertilisers for their crops and gardens. Once the project is fully established, Triple C Pigs will benefit from the use of earthworms to clean slurry ponds. Triple C is closely following this initiative, as it will benefit both the company and the communities.
Maintenance of community roads
In F2024, Triple C continued with its community roads maintenance initiative as part of CSR Initiatives.
Norton Country Club
Norton Country Club is wholly owned by Colcom and managed by Triple C Pigs.
The Norton Country Club is home to a variety of sports institutions, including golf and tennis. Local schools also use it as a training ground for students, including introducing junior golfers to the sport.
Triple C Pigs also provides tractors for mowing grass, watering grounds and providing labour for building maintenance. A nominal green fee is charged to anyone playing golf at the Club which is subsidised by Triple C Pigs.
Villa Franca Maggots Project
Another new project is underway at the Villa Franca Farm in Glendale. Young members of the Glendale community, led by a local Research Scientist trainee, are processing manure to make maggots. They then dry and roast these to create an alternative to soya meals. This meal, which has a protein content of at least 51%, is used for various animal feeds.
To further benefit the local community, the researcher now employs five people from the local community to assist with this project. The community is also benefitting from the manure disposed after the maggots are harvested.
This project is revolutionising the animal feed industry in the country by introducing high protein feed content in stockfeed, which will facilitate rapid animal growth and food security within the country.
Norton Country Club Golf Course and Clubhouse are maintained by Colcom Triple C