Mohammed Dewji Targets Coca-Cola and Pepsi With $50 Million Soft Drinks Plant in Kenya

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Mohammed Dewji is taking a direct shot at two of the world’s most dominant beverage giants — The Coca-Cola Company and PepsiCo — with a $50 million manufacturing plant planned in Mombasa.

The move is not subtle. It is a scale play, a pricing play, and above all, a market share play in one of Africa’s fastest-growing consumer economies.

Through his conglomerate MeTL Group, Dewji is betting that what worked in Tanzania — low-cost, mass-market beverages — can disrupt Kenya’s competitive soft drinks sector.

A Simple Strategy: Undercut Everyone

At the center of the strategy is price.

MeTL plans to sell a 300ml bottle of Mo Cola for around 15 Kenyan shillings ($0.12), significantly below the roughly 40 shillings charged by competing brands.

In other words, this is not a premium play. It is a volume play aimed squarely at the largest segment of the market — price-sensitive consumers.

It is also a strategy that has already worked.

In Tanzania, Dewji built Mo Cola into a recognizable brand by focusing less on brand prestige and more on accessibility. Now, he is scaling that model into Kenya.

Expansion Mode, Not Experimentation

The Kenya plant is part of a broader regional expansion.

MeTL’s beverage products — including Mo Cola, Mo Xtra, and Mo Malto — are already distributed across multiple African markets, including Uganda, Rwanda, Zambia, Ethiopia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Dewji has also signaled plans for additional production capacity in Uganda, reinforcing a wider push across East and Southern Africa.

This is not a trial run. It is a coordinated expansion strategy.

The Billionaire Behind the Brand

Known widely as “Mo,” Dewji has built one of East Africa’s largest indigenous business empires, spanning manufacturing, agriculture, logistics, and consumer goods.

With a net worth estimated at over $2 billion, he represents a growing class of African industrialists who are no longer just competing locally — but positioning themselves directly against global corporations.

His approach is pragmatic.

Instead of trying to out-market global brands, he is outpricing them.

A Market Too Big to Ignore

Kenya’s consumer market is becoming a key battleground.

Rising urbanisation, a growing middle class, and a large youth population are driving demand for affordable consumer goods — including beverages.

That opportunity has not gone unnoticed.

The Coca-Cola Company has committed roughly $1 billion in investment in South Africa by 2030, while bottling giant Varun Beverages has expanded aggressively across Southern Africa.

The result is a crowded, high-stakes market.

Local vs Global — and It’s Getting Competitive

Dewji’s entry into Kenya adds another layer to an already intensifying competition.

On one side are multinational giants with deep pockets, global supply chains, and decades of brand dominance.

On the other are regional players like MeTL, leveraging local knowledge, cost efficiency, and pricing strategies that multinationals often struggle to match.

The real question is not whether Mo Cola can compete.

It is whether Coca-Cola and Pepsi can maintain dominance in a market where affordability increasingly drives consumer choice.

The Bigger Picture

This is not just about soft drinks.

It reflects a broader shift across Africa’s consumer economy — where local billionaires are no longer content to operate in the shadow of global brands.

They are building scale, expanding regionally, and targeting the same markets that multinational corporations once dominated without serious local competition.

And increasingly, they are doing it on their own terms.

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