United Refineries Limited

About Us

Who We Are

Our Story

Our story is about our brands, our people, our passion, our achievements, our challenges, our resolve to never give, our hopes , the lives we touch and our pride as an innovative African company. From humble beginnings in the small town of Rusape, Manicaland, Zimbabwe we took our first steps as Rusape Oil Limited. Though our name has changed a couple of times along the journey, we have never deviated from our core misssion and purpose to give our customers the most affordable and quality products in the personal care and grocery food categories.

Over the past more than 80 year, we have become so knitted into the very fabric of Zimbabawe. Our brands such as Roil, image, Impala, Star Bar, Honeygold have become a part of the every day life of many households. Brands which have touched the collective memory of Zimbabweans with iconic adverts for Image Soap, Impala still stirring feelings of nolstagia, years after they were aired.

As we continue to spread our wings, into new product categories and new markets, we will never forget our roots and our passion to make lives better through better brands

"Societies need good businesses and good businesses need good societies"

Mission / Purpose

To build a company that lasts 100 years by providing branded and customer focused edible oils, food commodities soap and animal feed

Vision

To be the intergrated supplier of choice for a nutritious and tasty plate of food before every African, while keeping bodies clen.

Focus Goal

Towards an initial public offering (IPO) in Zimbabwe and combined 100,000 tonnes sold annually by 2024.

What We Do

Our Operations

URL is one of Zimbabwe’s (big four) largest cooking oil refinery after SurfaceWilmar Private Limited with a refining capacity of 12,000mt per year from soyabean seed and a combined 9,450mt per year for laundry and bath soaps and afurther 30,000mt per year for stock feeds. The company currently employs 263full time employees along with seasonal labor, depending on the level ofproduction activity averaging 100 people each month. It is one of the fewmanufacturing companies that remains operational at significant capacityutilization levels in the Southern Region of the country.In addition to branded product lines, URL also produces soya meal and soya beancake which are ideal for poultry and pig production as well as soya bean hull(which is high in fiber and ideal for cattle, chicks and mushroom growing). Theseare by-products of the cooking oil manufacturing processes. Annual production ofthese by-products is 30,000 tonnes.

Our Technical Capacity

URL boasts a replete production facility valued at USD6 million. This plant has the second largest production capacity in Zimbabwe of 12,000 metric tonnes. The company also has significant storage capacity of up to 18,000 metric tonnes. URL’s current production capacities as well as current utilization are as shown in the table below:

Variable Capacity Variance
Warehouse Storage
8,000
0%
Silo Capacity
8,000
50%

Overall capacity utilizations estimated at 55-65% and current initiatives are expected to take the company to 80% of production capacity. The agro-processor plans to resume crushing once cotton seed and soya bean seed availability venturing into stock feed manufacturing as part of its diversification strategy. The bath soap line will need refurbishment in order function at optimal levels.