Zambia

Zambian Breweries Ltd created its Manual Distribution Centre (MDC) programme for soft drinks distribution in order to give company employees and external entrepreneurs the opportunity of becoming independent business owners.

MDCs serve outlets in high-density areas where normal, motorised delivery methods are not suitable. Relying on push-carts and wheelbarrows, they generally employ two people – a runner who makes the deliveries and a salesman who responds to walk-in sales, supervises the runner, is accountable for stock, sales, operations and distribution and reports directly into the business owner.

On average, each centre has about 60 customers and can expect to sell 90 cases of soft drinks a day with the runner delivering 60 cases and 30 cases sold to walk-in customers. The programme provides employment and business development opportunities for around 190 people serving around 16,000 customers.