afrol News, 10 July - SABMiller plc has announced its plans to invest $125 million in a new brewery in Angola to meet the growing demand for beverages, the company has said in a statement.

According to company statement, the facility will produce 500,000 hectoliters of beer and 200,000 hectoliters of soft-drinks annually.

The manager of the company’s Angolan unit, Samuel Jeronimo, said the investment will bring to $250 million the amount the company has invested in building new plants and upgrading existing ones over the past 18 months.

“Production of clear beer will begin at the new greenfield brewery in Luanda in northern Angola in October 2009,” the statement said, further stating that the facility will create 500 jobs for the local people.

Mr Jeronimo said SABMiller also plans to encourage local producers to provide supplies of raw materials needed for beer and soft-drink production, saying apart from water, the company imports all the ingredients needed to make its products.

“A three-year project will create incentives for the production of corn, sugar and barley," he said. SABMiller will also partner with domestic companies in the production of bottles, crates and labels.

The company this year started production in the semi-autonomous region of Southern Sudan and plans to open breweries in Mozambique and Tanzania. as part of its African expansion programme.

SABMiller's started off its investment in Angola in 1997 by managing Empresa Cervejas de N'gola in Lubango, a city in the south of Angola, which recently expanded its output capacity to 820,000 hectolitres.

The country is rebuilding its economy after more than two decades of civil war, which , ended in 2002, in which more than 1 million people died.

By staff writer

© afrol News

Related pages and feature

Current afrol News Top Stories