Despite the controversy by the Residents Doctors Association of Zambia President Dr. Brian Chota Sampa who has embarked on a lone “Alcohol Ban” walk from Lusaka to Kabwe as a protest to have government ban alcohol, Zambian Breweries, Zambia’s largest brewer and part of the world’s largest brewing company (Anheuser-Busch InBev), will invest $80 million to double the beer production capacity of its Lusaka-based Mungwi Road plant.
As part of the upgrade, Zambian Breweries expects to invest 90% of the proposed investment in high-tech equipment that will see the plant operate more sustainably.
The investment will be spread over the next 18 months and will enable the company to strengthen its offer in the growing domestic beer market by the end of 2023.
According to officials, the project should support the various programs deployed by the company to source local raw materials such as barley, cassava, corn and sorghum.
The community will benefit from the multiple opportunities that will be created and the Zambian government will see an increase in tax revenue. The first phase of the investment includes upgrades to the supply wing of the business, which houses the technical services, brewing, cellars and packaging departments.
“This investment has been enabled by the pro-business and pro-investment climate being promoted by the government. We are encouraged by what we have seen so far and we as a business intend to be a big part of the economic recovery and growth of the Zambian market,” said Ms Michelle Kilpin, Zambian Breweries Managing Director.
Last year, the company saw its operating profit jump 730% to 190.2 million kwacha (€11.4 million).
Let that upnd cadre dr sampa find a new hobby. If he cannot handle drinking that is his own problem.let those that can drink continue to do so. We work for our own money
Ba mudala imwe, do not insult the man, you know full well that he is advocating for responsible consumption. Let him exercise his rights without being called anything. Stop snorting cheap crack.
Where are bottles comming from ???
GRZ needs to look at this, the market is in zambia, bottles should be produced in zambia……………
Producing Bottles and bottle tops is a big employer …………
We are not naive………..
This is where Zambians are very dull…..
No one knows, except the owners of zambia breweries , where bottle tops and the labels on bottles are produced, yet……
It is Zambians paying for them………..
Spaka
You are Zambian which means you also included in the people that you say….. that Zambians are dull.
You are an Engineer according to the description about your profile you posted on Lusaka times. The question is….
Why don’t put your actions to where your mouth is and set up a company that makes bottles and bottle tops. Being an engineer
you can put together technology that can produce such things locally and not wait for the government. You sound like a critic who never does anything but just trashes things down.
Monga
I have my plate full here where I am.
Establishing a bottle top manufacturing business would need me to be in zambia……….
I dont belive in remote control business………
Why I say Zambians are dull is that we don’t look at the whole cycle of producing and selling beer………
The South Africans want Zambians to be content with just supplying farming inputs, while ….
With every bottle opened , a new bottle top is needed, that’s a wholelotta bottle tops…..
The South Africans can’t get away with this is west Africa of even in east Africa…………
Everything that goes in and on a beer bottle would be made there…………..
This is where IDC can come in and establish such industries to supply by-products instead of propping up loss making entities…Zambian Breweries Plc being part of Anheuser-Busch InBev, the largest brewer in the world must be getting all such products in RSA creating employment there…govt needs to wake up
Spaka
Mate! You are talking trash. You are excluding yourself that you have so much on the plate, trying to make yourself important. You dont believe in remote business. What a load of trash. If you have money you can invest and set up a company anywhere in the world without being on the ground. You just need to hire local lawyers, accountants, etc… to help you set up the business. Then assemble local and international professionals to run the business.
Not a good idea. God bless Zambia.
This was on the ZNBC news more than a month ago, including an interview with the CEO.
Savy business people should look at producing beer labels and all drinks bottle tops in zambia…………..
And compel GRZ to force the brewery to buy zambian produced labels and bottle tops…….
$$$$$$$…….
Thanks to Dr Chota and his walk we will now have more beer.
Truly telling where this company’s interests lie; and, its not with our young population, it’s the huge profits for beneficiaries in Europe! How can a company making a product, which is evidently addictive, announce more investment at the same time doctors are calling for prohibition? Are we living in cuckoo land? It’s like laughing in the face of adversity! Where is the investment for alcohol rehabilitation clinics?? Does this company ever give a fraction of it’s huge profits to the Ministry of Health to offset the cost of treating liver cirrhosis and other ailments brought on by alcohol consumption – road accidents etc? Minister of Health, take this company to task, perhaps our young population might be saved. They are being enslaved through alcohol.
Its a very powerful corporation ..just see how the crush small competitors its been a longtime since I heard of an independent beer company in Zambia or even a craft beer from a small brewer.
This is where we Zambians excel on the continent – No. 1 at beer drinking busy making the Boers back in RSA very rich…real shame!!
Our money our choice. We don’t tell you how to spendthose peanuts you earn from cleaning toilets and wiping old white peoples backsides. Fuseke!
Sad, sad situation. Alcohol is silently destroying our future minds…”future” if they don’t perish sooner in an alcohol induced road accident. And the worst thing about it all, people are frighteningly unaware of the workings of modern enslavement. It is subtle. Slavers no longer come for you with wooden clubs and chains; this is too conspicuous. They now come with deceptive enticers – like the sweet bearing child abductor in the film “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”. Except, rather than sweets, these ones use alcohol to permanently abduct your mental faculties.
Zennia, I totally agree with you. This massive investment is not going to help the country. The increase in taxes the government is going to get is peanuts compared to the potential addiction problem that will afflict many of Zambia’s youth. A country cannot develop without a healthy empowered and sober youth. In a study published in the Public Health Journal in 2011, Zambian and Uganda had the highest alcohol per capital consumption in the world by adolescents. What this meant was the approximately one in three young people were consuming alcohol. The situation is likely to be worse now given the proliferation of unlicensed drinking places, the repackaging of alcohol in small sachets to enable its resell at low prices, and continuously growing high unemployment rates among young…
Good for beer production to go up to help PF party cope with its painful election loss .Drown your sorrows in beer KZ and other thieving PF chakolwes.
Don’t talk about bottles here. KK and Unip gave you KapiriGlass. What did you do to it? You shared the plant among yourselves in the name of privatization.