Bottling and filling line sizing for African beverage producers.
TL;DR: Work backwards from real monthly case sales to bottles-per-hour, add 20–30% headroom, and pick the tier: entry 2,000–4,000 bph (US$150k–400k equipment), mid 6,000–12,000 bph (US$400k–900k), industrial 18,000+ bph (a different capital class). Choose the package first — PET is the usual African entry (lowest capex, bottles blown on site); glass suits premium and returnable models; cans need scale. And engineer water and power before the filler, because they — not the machine — decide whether you ever run at rate.
Start from cases sold, not machine speed
The brochure says 6,000 bottles per hour. The only question that matters: how many bottles a month can you actually sell? Take your realistic monthly cases, convert to bottles, divide by effective production hours (a well-run single shift gives roughly 160–180 hours a month after changeovers and cleaning), and add 20–30% headroom. That's your speed. Most first beverage lines in our markets land honestly in the 2,000–4,000 bph tier — and the ones that buy 10,000 bph "for growth" spend years paying finance charges on speed they run two days a week.
The speed tiers
| Tier | Speed (600ml basis) | Equipment capex band | What it really is |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entry | 2,000–4,000 bph | US$150k–400k | Semi- to fully-automatic rinse-fill-cap block, simple labelling and packing; the honest first line for water, juice and CSD start-ups |
| Mid | 6,000–12,000 bph | US$400k–900k | Automated block with in-line blowing (PET), automatic labelling, shrink or carton packing; a regional-brand line |
| Industrial | 18,000+ bph | US$1M+ (project class of its own) | High-speed blocks, full automation, laboratory QC — the class multinational bottlers run; rarely the right next step for readers of a sizing guide |
Bands are equipment ex-China; apply ×1.25–1.45 coastal or ×1.45–1.60 landlocked for the landed-and-installed total — and note water treatment, discussed below, is part of the project, not an accessory.
PET, glass, or can — the package decides the line
| Dimension | PET | Glass | Can |
|---|---|---|---|
| Relative line capex (same throughput) | Lowest | Medium–high | Highest |
| Make package on-site? | Yes — blow-mould from preforms | No | No |
| Barrier / shelf life | Moderate (better with barrier tech) | Excellent | Excellent |
| Carbonation suitability | Good (with counter-pressure filler) | Excellent | Excellent |
| Freight / logistics | Light | Heavy | Lightest, dense |
| Returnable model | Rare | Common | No |
| Economic scale threshold | Low | Medium | High |
| Market perception | Standard | Premium | Premium / on-trend |
For most first lines in our markets the answer is PET: lowest capex, the package is made on-site from cheap-to-ship preforms, and the empty-bottle logistics problem disappears. Glass earns its premium where a returnable model or premium positioning exists; cans need volumes that justify the filler and the minimum can orders.
The two utilities that decide everything
Water: your product is mostly water, and your source water decides the treatment train — which is engineered from a laboratory analysis of your borehole or municipal supply, not copied from a catalogue. Treatment belongs in the initial budget and the commissioning plan. Power: blowers and fillers hate unstable supply; across our markets we size stabilisation or generation with the line — in Zambia it's in every quote by policy — because a line that can't hold speed never delivers its rated output, whoever built it.
The failure mode — the rated-speed mirage: a line is bought on its nameplate speed, installed without water and power engineering, and then runs at 60% of rate with constant stops. The supplier blames the site; the site blames the machine; both are half right, and the output commitment was never in writing. Every CISH line is commissioned to an agreed output on your product and your utilities, demonstrated before sign-off — which is why the utilities get engineered first.
Where the demand is
Filling & packaging is the strongest single machinery category across our footprint 2024 · UN Comtrade: Ghana +59.2% to US$17.5M (sachet and bottled water, FDA enforcement), Zimbabwe +143%, Zambia's largest category at US$7.19M, and steady demand in Tanzania and Mozambique.
What's the drink, and how many cases a month?
Those two answers size the whole line. Free feasibility call — honest tier, package advice, and a written budget band.