Agro-industrial group CFI Holdings is pursuing the revival of Crest Poultry Group (CPG), with the company investing in the resuscitation of the division’s hatchery operations.
“The group invested ZWG69.85 million (2025 – ZWG6.64 million) into property, plant, and equipment, mostly towards re-tooling and plant spares for Victoria Foods and towards resuscitating its hatchery operations under CPG,” CFI chairperson Itai Valerie Pasi said in CFI’s financials for the half year ended 31 March 2026.
“Opportunities leveraging the group’s poultry infrastructure and brands are still being pursued,” she said.
CPG exited judicial management in January 2020, but its key operational units – Crest Breeders, Hubbard Zimbabwe, and Suncrest Chickens – were retained under care and maintenance to allow the company to pursue joint ventures and restore full capacity.
Meanwhile CFI, which has operations in retail, farming, milling and property development reported a strong performance for the period under review, with group inflation-adjusted revenues rising by 51.3 percent from ZWG1.52 billion in prior half year to ZWG 2.30 billion.
“The growth was mainly driven by higher demand for agricultural inputs during a largely successful farming season,” Pasi said.
Overall, retail operations contributed 86.33 percent (2025- 85.04 percent), food manufacturing and down-packing operations 11.12 percent (2025 – 9.06 percent), farming accounted for 2.18 percent (2025– 2.50 percent) and group properties accounted for 0.37 percent (2025– 3.41 percent) to the group’s turnover.
Pasi said despite the positive revenue growth, group margins declined due to heightened competition from the informal sector, which continued to exert downward pressure on pricing and profitability.
“The group recognized unrealized exchange gains of ZWG88.51 million on its foreign currency denominated loans, compared to an unrealised exchange loss of ZWG55.20 million recorded in the corresponding prior period,” Pasi said.
Consequently, the group reported a profit before tax of ZWG78.76 million, a decline from the profit before tax of ZWG593.24 million achieved during the prior half-year period.