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SABMiller opens new brewery in Uganda

Hopes to capitalise on growth in African beer market

Helen Tunnicliffe

NILE Breweries, the Ugandan subsidiary of SABMiller, has officially opened its new US$90m brewery in Mbarara in Western Uganda.

The brewery will double Nile's brewing capacity to 360m l/y. Previously, the company had just one brewery at Jinja, originally built in 1956 and expanded in 2009 to double its capacity to 180m l/y. However it is already almost at maximum production. SABMiller says that beer consumption in Uganda has been growing annually by 11% for the past six years. This has been driven by the growing population and higher incomes. The market is growing fastest in the west of the country, making Mbarara the ideal location for the new brewery.

The Mbarara brewery will initially produce 65,000 l/y but will expand as demand grows further. It will produce Eagle Extra, Uganda's biggest beer brand and Eagle Lager (both of which are brewed from local sorghum malt, rather than barley), Nile's flagship brand Nile Special, Club Pilsner and Chairman's Extra Strong Brew.

The brewery will create 180 direct jobs and will increase the demand for sorghum, benefitting local farmers in the Ankole and Kigezi regions. Around 20,000 farmers around Uganda already supply Nile.

"The growth potential in Uganda, particularly Western Uganda, is significant and the new brewery in Mbarara will allow us to realise the opportunity. Building a second brewery in Uganda is part of our strategy to invest in new capacity across Africa so that we are in a strong position to capitalise on the continent's long-term beer market growth over the coming decades," says SABMiller Africa managing director Mark Bowman.

The new brewery takes SABMiller's investment in Uganda to over US$200m in the past five years.

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Gwokto La'Kitgum

"Even a small dog can piss on a tall Building", Jim Hightower

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