Optimising sugar distribution in Illovo Malawi

In Malawi, we have successfully redesigned Illovo Sugar’s routes to market to put customers’ needs at their heart, helping us to improve sugar margins and connections with distributors and stockists. This helped increase sugar sales to both consumers and industrial customers across the country.

We did this by developing and implementing a standardised process across the country, with one of the most important changes being the introduction of our improved delivery network. In delivering products to customers instead of them having to travel to collect stock, this eliminated price disparities arising from transportation costs being added to the selling price of our sugar.

We also expanded our geographic footprint by appointing new distributors, opening new container shops in strategic locations and significantly scaling up our secondary distribution. This combination of improved delivery and an expanded footprint has transformed market penetration and ensures easier and more reliable access to Illovo products in rural areas.