SABMiller targets affordable beer market in Africa

published 10 October 2012

SABMiller has gone back to its African roots, marketing its African beer brand, Chibuku, in ten countries across the continent.

Chibuku is an opaque beer based on traditional African recipes using maize and/or sorghum, depending on local tastes.

Following successful pilot schemes in Ghana, Mozambique, Swaziland and Tanzania, full-scale Chibuku production has now been launched in each of these countries. A Lesotho pilot has been launched with commercial sales expected in the next few months and in Uganda a brand new plant is being planned as part of the new brewery under construction in Mbarara. The brand was already on sale in Botswana, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

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SABMiller has invested $16m over the last 18 months in the brand, and is expecting to shift more than half a million hectolitres of Chibuku across new markets in Africa by the end of this financial year (March 31st 2013).

SABMiller's expansion of Chibuku is part of its strategy to make more affordable beers for lower-income consumers across Africa. It also provides a guaranteed market for the smallholder farmers through which SABMiller sources the maize and sorghum used in production.

In the year ending March 2012, SABMiller sourced maize and sorghum from around 40,000 smallholder farmers across Africa.