During the week of 11 April, KwaZulu-Natal was hit by severe flooding, caused by four months’ worth of rain in one day - some of the worst flooding South Africa has seen in recent history.  Many lives were lost, with numerous people still missing and unaccounted for.

In addition to the human losses, business in the province was hit hard as well. They were left juggling damage to their infrastructure and loss of stock while trying to keep trading and launching mop-up operations. All the while ensuring staff were safe. 

The Simba plant in Prospecton did not escape the deluge

The Prospecton site, one of three Simba snacks manufacturing plants, was severely impacted by the flooding, being exposed to water levels of more than 1,2 meters from the ground. This meant that all the equipment, raw materials, and finished product that was exposed had to be discarded.

The plant being down and unable to produce any product, had an impact on both national and regional stock levels – a situation that would take several months to totally recover from.

The site's electrical reticulation and mains power had been damaged, in addition, the site’s water supply was cut-off.

The clean-up commences

The Clean-up process could only begin once the water levels in the plant dropped and the freeway access leading to and from the plant had opened.

This began on 14 April 2022, and following the inspection of the site it was discovered that the floors were all covered in approximately 10mm of mud, which had to be cleared before the equipment could be repaired. The mud was also coating the plant and admin buildings, equipment and outside areas.

Because the site was plunged into darkness resulting from water damage to the site’s electrical infrastructure, the first week of cleaning had to be done with minimal lighting in the facility. The site’s water supply was cut off so water for cleaning was supplied via water trucks for cleaning water as the site’s water supply was cut off.  

All the water used for the cleaning had to be lifted and disposed of with tanker and truck services as the sites effluent plant was non-operational.  Management had to always be present throughout the cleaning of the site to ensure that the slippery surfaces and the surfaces that were being cleaned were not going to impact the safety of staff and contractors.

Restoring the site to an operational state

All the equipment electrical panels and motors was impacted by water ingress damage and this required support from external engineering service providers to clear the water ingress damage and clear the equipment of the mud to determine the extent of the damage.

A joint effort between several PepsiCo SSA teams and third-party service providers restored Prospecton Plant to an operational state in record time.

The site is not 100% operational  yet, with some operations not yet at full capacity, but the business is slowly working to recover stock levels in KZN, and then ultimately to support national supply. It is only expected that full restoration of supply will be achieved in July.