SABMiller has announced it will invest US$80 million into a new brewery at its Ugandan subsidiary, Nile Breweries (NBL), doubling the company's design capacity to 3.6 million hectolitres by 2013.
The new brewery will be constructed in Mbarara in western Uganda, the fastest-growing regional beer market in the country.
The Mbarara site will employ around 140 people directly and will brew the majority of NBL's portfolio of beers, including Nile Special, Club Pilsener, Eagle Extra and Eagle Lager. Eagle beers are currently brewed using sorghum, a locally grown crop sourced from 9,000 smallholder farmers, and the new brewery is expected to support a total of 26,000 jobs in the wider economy.
Uganda’s beer market grew by 28 per cent in the 12 months to the end of December 2011, driven by strong economic growth and population expansion, SABMiller said. However, average per-capita beer consumption is still relatively low at around eight litres per year, compared to an average of around 60 litres in South Africa.
Mark Bowman, managing director of SABMiller Africa, said: "This is a tremendous development for Nile Breweries and demonstrates our commitment to further investing in Africa. The Mbarara Brewery will double our country-wide production capacity, create a significant number of jobs in the local economy and provide a secure revenue stream for local farmers.
“The development is also testament to the success of our local raw material sourcing strategy in Uganda, which has provided a blueprint for other operations across Africa, most recently with the world's first commercial cassava-based beer in Mozambique."
The development of the new brewery follows a US$29 million investment to expand capacity at the existing Jinja site in 2009 and a cumulative US$25.6 million investment to develop maltings and effluent treatment plants in 2011—bringing the total capital expenditure for the country to over US$130 million over the last three years.
SABMiller is one of the world's largest brewers with brewing interests and distribution agreements across six continents. The group's portfolio includes brands such as Pilsner Urquell, Peroni Nastro Azzurro, Miller Genuine Draft and Grolsch, as well as local brands such as Aguila, Castle, Miller Lite, Snow and Tyskie. SABMiller is also one of the world's largest bottlers of Coca-Cola products.
