Ethiopia: Heineken not interested in buying any company in Ethiopia – Managing Director

With the Ethiopian beer market in a stiff competition to interest the pocketbooks of the ever-increasing beer drinking population and BGI Ethiopia scooping little known brands, Heineken Ethiopia has confirmed it will not follow its competitor’s trend and take part in the increasing consolidation of the beer market, The Reporter Ethiopia reported on February 24.

With BGI Ethiopia in the process of acquiring the ownership of brands such as Zebider and Raya, Heineken will have a different strategy to attract the local consumers, Heineken Ethiopia managing director Gerrit van Loo said.

“We will not buy any beer company in Ethiopia,” he told The Reporter. “It is much cheaper to build or invest in our own factories than buy (like BGI)”. He explained that Heineken recently expanded its factory investing much resource at its facility in Kilinto.

BGI, owner of St. George and Castel brands, recently made a bid for Raya (at 2.5 billion birr) and for the Zebider brand from Unibar, the Belgium-based company via its owner, The Castel Group, as it aims to use the factories of these brands instead of constructing new breweries to appease the local market.

The Ethiopian market continues to attract multinationals from abroad following the privatizations of all the beer markets in the nation.

Loo also told The Reporter that Heineken is not interested in purchasing the Asela Malt Factory, which Habesha Brewery offered to sell for the sum of USD42 million, via its sister company Bavaria, last week.

“We bring most of our malt from abroad and there is no need to bid for the factory,” he shrugged.

The Dutch-based company and owner of the Walia, Bedele, Harar and Heineken brands is teaming up with the development arm of the Government of Holland and the Ethiopian government as a strategy to work with local farmers to empower them to be entrepreneurs and have the company buy most of its raw materials locally.

There are now five beer companies operating in the country, including Dashen, BGI, Heineken, Diageo and Habesha, all owned by foreign multinationals.

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