Chebut Tea Factory

LOCATION.

Chebut Tea factory falls within KTDA administrative Region 7 and is located at Kapsabet Location, Emgwen Sub-County of Nandi County in Rift Valley Province, Kenya.

It is situated at altitude of 2000Mtrs above sea level, 45 Km from Eldoret town and approximately 300 Kms west of Nairobi.

HISTORY:

Chebut Tea factory was commissioned on 4^th, November 1972 by the first president of the Republic of Kenya, the late Mzee Jomo Kenyatta – to serve the then emerging small scale tea farmers in Nandi Region and within Zone 12 to manufacture black CTC tea. Zone 12 is a KTDA administrative region that covers Western, Uasin Gishu & Trans-Nzoia.

The factory was previously under George Williamsons Tea Company before Kenya Tea Development Authority took over the running of the Factory in 1981. It was privatized in the year 2000 becoming a limited Company owned by registered tea farmers in Nandi.

Due to the expansion of tea production business registered in the region over time, additional factories were opened i.e. Mudete Tea factory in 1998 (Western), Kapsara tea factory in 2008 (Trans-Nzoia) and recently Kaptumo tea factory which was commissioned on 4^th, February 2011 by the then Minister for Agriculture Dr. Sally Kosgei, as a satellite of Chebut tea factory.

CLIMATE:

Is conducive for both relief and conventional rainfall. It is fairly warm; it gets quite hot during the dry months of January to March.

Soils:

The catchment has deep- red well drained volcanic loam soils.

This offers a suitable growing environment for tea.

TYPES OF TEA GROWN:

The type of tea grown here is Assam tea with common clones being 6/8, 31/8, C12, T N14/3, SFS 150 and 303/577.

These clones were developed by Tea Research Foundation of Kenya, each with outstanding characteristics in terms of yield and quality.

The factory produces Black CTC teas.

Capacity:

The Factory is designed to comfortably handle 25 Million kilograms of green tea leaf annually. Processing is completely automated. The factory manufactures premium quality black CTC teas.

CONSTITUTION OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS:

The Company is a limited liability Company with a Board of Directors elected directly by the shareholders.

The Board authors corporate policies governing the conduct of Company business.

The basic operational unit is Green Tea Collection Centre owned by a group of growers within a locality: The daily affairs of the centre are governed by five member committee popularly elected by the affiliated tea growers.

The factory has a total of 10,645 registered growers delivering green leaf to the factory.

The current Directors are as follows:

1) Mr. Richard K. Kemboi – Chairman

2) Mr. Kennedy Tanui – V/Chairman

3) Mr. Robert Kipkemboi – Director

4) Mr.Noah K. Choge – Director

5) Mr.Nelson K. Bitok – Director

6) Mr. Alfred K. Mwey – Director

7) Mr.Khasiani K Abung’ana – Regional Director

8) Mr.Stephen K. Maswai – Company Secretary- Rg7

SPECIAL PROJECTS AND CORPORATE SOCIAL INVESTMENT

The Factory sponsors bright and needy students from needy families under KTDA foundation.