By Silvia Nyambura
Uganda Breweries Limited has announced it will be celebrating 70 years of existence in the country on 27th July, 2016. Set up after the World War II in 1946, the company was the 18th to ever be registered in Uganda. Over the years, it has become an iconic brand dedicated to celebrating and transforming lives locally regionally and internationally.
Addressing the media this morning at the Company’s headquarters in Port Bell Kampala, the out-going Managing Director Nyimpini Mabunda said the brand had lived through the Uganda’s troubled past to what it is today.
UBL has invested significantly in growing its capacity so that more Ugandans can enjoy the diverse offering of high quality alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages.
“In the early 90’s our capacity was at 650,000 hectolitres and by 2001 we were at 750,000 hectolitres. In 2010 we invested Ushs 44 billion in a new state-of-the art bottling line, which doubled the brewery’s capacity and improved bottling versatility. In 2012, we invested a further GBP £ 1.4 million in installing a mash filter to support the use of local raw material sourced from within the country thus significantly improving our brewing capacity to over 1.2 million hectoliters a year. In 2015, we completed work on the refurbishment of our Effluent Treatment plant, a project that cost GBP £ 4.8 million and significantly increased our capacity to treat our industry waste even if our capacity were to grow by thousands of hectoliters,” he said.
Mabunda explained that the Ugandan market had in turn rewarded all the investment in the plant over the years, allowing the company to grow its volumes from a modest 0 crates prior to 1950, to 75,000 cases of beer per month in 1991, to over 27,000 cases per day to date. The plant had also diversified into spirits production allowing it to be able to supply over 2,000 units of spirits’ volumes every day.
UBL’s product portfolio includes beers, spirits, soft beverages and ‘Ready to Drinks” (RTDs) like Smirnoff Ice. Beers include Bell Lager, Guinness, the Tusker family, Senator, Pilsner and their most recent innovation Ngule. Within its spirits’ portfolio is Uganda Waragi, the Johnnie Walker family, Ciroc, various single malt whiskies and Bond 7. Uganda Breweries also provides V&A sherry and Baileys as well as Alvaro, a premium non-alcoholic beverage.
Innovation has played a big role in the sustainability of the business. The company recently stopped adding sugar to all the beers produced at the brewery in port bell and for over 5 years has used locally sourced materials like barley, sorghum, cornstarch and cassava in its production.
“We recently innovated our heritage brands. We put Bell and Uganda Waragi (UG) in new stunning packs and introduced two new flavors (Coconut & Coffee) to the UG family. We have introduced the Ugandan consumer to new brands like Tusker Lite, Guarana, Singleton and new to world brands like Ngule. We also pride ourselves on shaping consumer experiences with whisky tasting dinners, cocktails and best serves which have allowed our consumers learn new ways to share and enjoy their favorite brands with great satisfaction,” he added.
UBL currently employs 22,000 people directly and indirectly along its value chain. Of these, 17,000 are farmers who are guaranteed market for the grains and materials the brewery uses in its production.
Under its Water of Life initiative, the Brewery actively seeks out opportunities to provide clean safe water to different people in the country. To date, the company has provided access to clean and safe water to over 2 million Ugandans with some of the beneficiaries including Jinja, Mbarara and Entebbe referral hospitals. The other beneficiaries have been the Gaba and Luzira fishing communities as well as the farmers in northern Uganda where the company has sunk a number of boreholes to support the community.
The company actively campaigns for responsible consumption of its products under its Red Card campaign against drink driving and underage consumption, for which the company has partnered with Straight Talk Foundation. The campaign educates customers on the dangers of driving under the influence, trains bartenders and owners on how to serve responsibly and in particular to pay attention not to serve underage drinkers.
In-coming Managing Director Mark Ocitti Ongom said, “As this country’s premier corporate citizen, Uganda Breweries has and will continue to contribute immensely to the Ugandan economy through payment of taxes, job creation, best practices as well as state of the art manufacturing facilities and processes. We pledge to continue doing so for several decades to come.”
Ocitti revealed that in the coming years, UBL’s focus would consolidate the wins achieved over the last years and focus on ensuring that its great products are placed closer to the consumer.
“I am confident that with the continued support from everyone around us we will be around for several decades to come and we will continue to play our part in building our Uganda,” he concluded.