(Seychelles News Agency) - Seychelles Breweries Company, the Indian Ocean island archipelago's only brewery, was forced to temporarily halt production because of an equipment malfunction, the manager of the company said. 

Nick Cook said there was a problem that was making products go bad after about a month. 

Cook says the flash pasteurizer was not operating properly and that the issue has now been sorted out.

In recent weeks clients have been complaining of the beer having a foul taste and have even returned the products to shops and the factory situated at Le Rocher, on the east coast of Mahe.

The new manager says that beer will be available on the market as of next week and the company is putting 3,000 cases of beer and soft drinks on the market by early May.

The company has also put in place several measures to restore the quality of the products and is installing new equipment. 

“We have already put in place some measures to make sure that we significantly raise the standards of the quality of our products,” say Cook.

The changes cost $6.3 million and are part of the company’s aim to ensure quality and efficiency.

Cook says the month of March has been tough for the company but he believes that further loss can be mitigated with hard work.

“The financial impact has been really strong; we are going to have to work real hard during the next three months to recuperate from that.”

The new manager says Seychelles breweries can go beyond the traditional 5 to 10 percent growth and can reach 20-25 percent growth by 2019 by repositioning its beers, adding new flavours to its soft drinks and looking at exporting beer.

“I think in the next three years we can see some real transformational growth,” says Cook.

According to 2011 data from the World Health Organisation, Seychelles was the third highest consumer of beer per capita in the world. The percentage of beer consumption in the 115-island archipelago fell from 85% of total alcohol consumed in 2011 to 67% in 2014.