Staff Writer
ONE in three beers sold anywhere on this planet will have a strong South African connection.
This follows the announcement yesterday by SABMiller, the world’s second-largest brewery, that it had agreed to sell its shareholding to the world’s biggest, Anheuser-Busch (AB inBev), for about £68 billion (R1.4 trillion).
This development has been described as the biggest merger in world brewer history.
On its website, it describes itself as having been “born in a gold rush”.
“Our company produces more than 200 beers in 80 countries, but before we became a global success story, we were a South African success story,” it says.
“In 1895, The South African Breweries (SAB) was founded, with its head office being the Castle Brewery (makers of Castle Lager).
“Two years later, SAB became the first industrial company to list on the JSE.”
But its ties with South Africa can also be traced to Cape Town’s first commercial brewery, established in Newlands in the mid-1800s.
Over time, it acquired a number of other breweries, including Chandler’s Union and Ohlsson’s breweries in Cape Town.
According to the World of Beer website, South African Breweries at one point held 98 percent of the South African market.
Ohlsson’s, and before it, Mariendal’s, was located at SABMiller’s historic Newlands Breweries site, which today still proudly boasts of brewing beer with “pure Table Mountain” water.
In 1999, SA Breweries formed SAB plc, and moved its primary listing to London, and in May 2002, it acquired Miller Brewing, to establish SABMiller plc.
It was the signal for a phenomenal period of growth, becoming second only to AB InBev in the world market.
The Megabrew blog says AB InBev produces 410 million hectolitres of beer every year, compared with SABMiller’s 324 million hectolitres (one hectolitre equals 100 litres).
Between them, the two companies produce eight of the 10 most popular beer brands in the world. The most popular of the AB InBev brands are Bud Light, Budweiser, Stella Artois, Corona and Brahma.
SABMiller is best known for Miller Light and Aguila.
SABMiller employs about 70 000 people in more than 80 countries, while AB InBev impresses with about 155 000 employees.