Nile Breweries Ltd
Tel: +256 (0) 33 2 210009 | Toll free 0800230200 | Fax +256 (0) 33 2 240292/303
Email: corporateaffairs@ug.sabmiller.com | Web: www.nilebreweries.com
  | Location: Plot M90 Yusuf Lule Road Njeru, Uganda Postal Address: PO Box 762 Jinja, Uganda  Greg Metcalf, Managing Director Nile Breweries: More taxes on beers could hurt industry Greg Metcalf, the outgoing managing director of Nile Breweries has warned that more taxes on beers could adversely hurt the growth of the industry.Speaking to the New Vision exclusively in his office in Luzira, a Kampala suburb said government has mooted the idea of a 15 percent tax increase on beer. “They (government) has engaged us and Uganda Breweries and announced that they intend to increase taxes. It is our big fear in the year coming ahead.How will the industry cope with this taxation?” he said.“The industry will have to make a choice. The taxes will either be passed on to the prices, or the industry tries to absorb it, but a 15 percent increase on taxes is a lot to absorb, I am not sure how we can afford to do that.”If beer prices go up, Metcalf fears that fewer people could buy beer, which will in turn affect the revenue targets of government.Read more ▪ How global corporate takeover is eating into Nile Breweries Mr Daniel Ogong, 43, had worked for Nile Breweries Limited (NBL) for the last 15 years until February 2017 when he threw in the towel and opted to resign.His resignation came at a time he was marketing director for seven years, and was also serving on the board of the beer manufacturer.The speculation around his departure from NBL has been very wide; with some pointing out that he had been fired.“I was asked to stay on at NBL but I refused and decided to leave. The option for me to leave was informed by the change in the structure of ownership and operations at NBL,” Mr Ogong explained on the sidelines of an NBL media briefing about the departures from the company last week.Read more ▪ Nile Breweries unveils new look Beer company, Nile Breweries Limited (NBL), has launched a new corporate identity, which it says is meant to align it to changing consumer needs and tastes.While unveiling the new company outlook on Monday, Mr Greg Metcalf, the NBL managing director, said since 1951 when the company was established, it has been using a roaring lion as its logo, which is old yet times and customers have changed.“Sometime in 2008 when I was attending a business function, I told some consumer that our brewery is in Jinja and he described it as a rural brewery because he thought this company is small yet today it is a dominant player in the beer industry,” he said.He added that as the leading company in innovations in the industry, there was need to change the company corporate identity to reflect its corporate vision and show the consumers and other players in the industry that this is a progressive company.Read more ▪  Diversify into fruit processing, Museveni tells Nile Breweries President Yoweri Museveni has urged SAB Miller Worldwide, which is a multinational brewing and beverage company, to diversify their activities in Uganda into fruits processing. The President made the remarks when he received Alan Clark, who is the Chief Executive Officer of SAB-Miller Worldwide, who called on him at State House, Entebbe.The President welcomed him and his team to Uganda and said that his Company should look into diversification from beer and water production into fruits processing targeting the export of fruit juice both to the local and international markets.In Uganda, SAB Miller are the proprietors of Nile Breweries and Rwenzori Water projects. The Company, which is headquartered in London, UK, operates in over 80 countries in Africa, Europe, the Americas, Asia and Australia.The meeting was also attended by Mark Brown, the Managing Director of SAB-Miller Africa (Pty) Ltd, Greg Metcalf who is Managing Director of Nile Breweries Ltd and Elly Karuhanga. Read more ▪  Nile Breweries Slashes Prices Nile Breweries has slashed the prices of some of its low-end beer brands.The prices of all brands in the Eagle family - Eagle Lager, Eagle Extra, and Eagle Dark - have been cut, some by as much as 20 per cent, according to a company statement."For Eagle Extra, this represents a 20 per cent reduction to Shs 2,000, making our brands the most competitive in the market," Greg Metcalf, the Nile Breweries managing director, said.Brewed for the low-end market, the Eagle brand is also known for supporting farmers as all the raw materials for the beer are grown locally. Metcalf said the drop in the beer prices would increase the amount of tax the company pays to government. Read more ▪ NBL: Beverage industry players seek to attract low end consumers Beer industry players are seeking to invest in local raw materials in the manufacturing of products in an attempt to lure the traditional brew drinkers into formal beer drinking segment.Industry statistics show that Ugandans are still average drinkers, consuming about 10 litres annually compared to South Africans’ 80 litres and Czechoslovakia leading with 100 litres per person annually, making them the highest alcohol consumers in the world.To raise the numbers, the industry market leader, Nile Breweries Limited (NBL), is targeting the informal drinkers, (those who drink local brew). “We are looking at getting informal markets into consuming our products and growing our markets as well,” the new managing director NBL , Mr Greg Metcalf, said in his first news conference in Kampala.“We will be using more of the local raw materials to make affordable products that are appealing so that we can move people from informal drinking,” he added. According to him, his company will be investing more in production of local barley, including employing the services of experts to help farmers here enhance their yields—both in terms of quality and quantity. Read more ▪ SABMiller, Nile breweries Limited’s parent company, has raised the competition bar with the introduction of Nile Special, one of Uganda’s most popular beers, in the Kenyan market.The move is set to revive rivalry between SABMiller and East African Breweries Limited (EABL); the two dominant beer makers in the region. SABMiller has been exporting Nile Special from Uganda for the past one month, pricing the drink up to Shs871.5 lower than Tusker, EABL’s flagship beer.“When Nile Special was introduced in Western Kenya, it quickly became apparent that the brand had wide acceptance across a diverse consumer group,” said Crown Beverages Kenya managing director Gareth Jones in an interview.“Following this success, we decided to expand the brand’s footprint and make it available nationally from March this year,” he added. Read more ▪  Nile Breweries managing director to retire Nile Breweries Limited (NBL) has announced the retirement of the managing director (MD), Mr Nick Jenkinson.Mr Jenkison has served in the company incorporated as SABMiller for a period of 30 years in various capacities in South Africa, Tanzania, Ghana, Swaziland and later Uganda.He became NBL’s managing director in 2005.Mr Mark Bownan, the MD SABMiller Africa, described him as an “exceptional, very knowledgeable and well respected leader in the business.”Mr Jenkinson oversaw the expansion of the Nile Breweries plant in Jinja to double capacity by 2009 and also steered the acquisition of Rwenzori Beverages Limited.He also revolutionised the beer industry by making NBL maintain the biggest 55/56 percent market share in an unstable economic environment as of 2013, and also expanded the use of local sorghum, barley and maize to make beer, with enormous benefits to farmers across the country. Read more ▪  New Nile plant takes beer closer to western market Ruharo is home to Nile Breweries Limited (NBL)’s new plant in Mbarara. It is the company’s second. President Museveni officially launched the brewery, although it had started production in March this year. The factory, valued at $90.6m (approx Shs 233bn), according to NBL officials, is expected to open up opportunities not only for the residents in Ruharo, but also to farmers in the region, who will supply the plant with raw materials. The Ruharo project, NBL says, is part of the $200m (approx Shs 520bn) expansion plan that NBL intends to execute. “We have the capacity of producing 5.5m crates of beer per annum, expandable to 180m litres,” said Nick Jenkinson, the managing director at NBL Uganda. ▪   President Museveni has hailed beer company, Nile Breweries Ltd (NBL), for creating jobs and revenue opportunities to farmers and government. While opening the new NBL brewery plant in Mbarara District, the President said: “In the past beer was manufactured using imported cereals yet we had cereals here. Why do we use imported cereals when we have sorghum and maize here? By buying from the local markets, beer companies have improved what we call forward and backward linkages.” Read more ▪ |