FDBusiness.com

SABMiller has opened its new brewery in Onitsha, South Eastern Nigeria, the company’s first ‘greenfield’ brewery facility to be built in the country. Work began on the Onitsha site in 2011 following an investment of over $100 million.

The new brewery will commence production of beer and malt with an annual capacity of up to 500,000 hectoliters. The initial brand to be brewed will be newly launched Hero Lager, followed by other brands including Trophy Lager, Grand Lager and non-alcoholic malt beverages Grand Malt and Beta Malt.

Over the past five years SABMiller has invested over $1 billion in Africa. The Onitsha brewery brings SABMiller’s total number of sites in Nigeria to four, having first entered the market in 2009 through its strategic alliance with Castel.

Nigeria is Africa’s second largest beer market and is growing at around 6% per annum. However, average per capita consumption is still relatively low at around 10 litres per year which compares to an average of around 60 litres in Africa’s largest beer market, South Africa.

SABMiller is one of the world’s leading brewers with more than 200 beer brands and some 70,000 employees in over 75 countries. The group’s portfolio includes global brands such as Pilsner Urquell, Peroni Nastro Azzurro, Miller Genuine Draft and Grolsch; as well as leading local brands such as Aguila (Colombia), Castle (South Africa), Miller Lite (USA), Snow (China), Victoria Bitter (Australia) and Tyskie (Poland). SABMiller also has growing soft drinks businesses and is one of the world’s largest bottlers of Coca-Cola products. In the year ended 31 March 2012 the group reported EBITA of $5.6 billion and group revenue of $31.4 billion.