Caribbean: According to the chief executive officer of Carib Brewery, Andrew Sabga, his company, which is a subsidiary of the Ansa McAl Group, has not made an offer to purchase one of Guyana's largest and leading companies, Banks DIH. Sabga told reporters on December 13: "As far as I am aware, Carib Brewery has not and does not intend to make any offer to purchase any shares of any company in Guyana. So I don't know where that rumour is coming from, but Carib Brewery has not made any offer to purchase anything."

Last week, scores of Banks DIH employees staged a protest outside Ansa McAl's Georgetown offices, amidst rumours that the Trinidad based conglomerate made a bid to buy the profitable Guyana company. In addition to the protest last week, a full page advertisement was placed in the Stabroek News which voiced serious concerns as to ownership of Banks DIH falling into "Trinidad" hands.

In addition to its string of leading alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, under the Banks DIH flagship are bakery and restaurant chains, a docking facility and it is also the majority shareholder (51 per cent) of one of Guyana's leading banks, Citizens Bank.

Asked if Carib Beer is sold in Guyana, Sabga answered in the positive adding: "It is one of our bigger Caricom markets. We do presently enjoy the minority market share there, minor to Banks DIH, the local manufacturer. But we are the largest import into Guyana."

Questioned as to whether he intended to increase exports to Guyana, he said: "We plan to increase exports to every market that we go to."

The press conference took place at the Carib Brewery Compound in Champs Fleurs and was organised to highlight its November 30, 2004 record production figure of 1,050,000 cases of Carib Brewery products. The last time the company crossed the 1,000,000 case mark was back in October 2001 when it got to 1,005,296 cases.

This record figure came in the wake of the company's lock-out action, which took place during the months of May and June this year.

Asked if outstanding issues between management and staff had been ironed out, Sabga commented: "Let me put it this way. We are working very feverishly with our staff to ensure that what has happened in the past is behind us and that we can ensure that we learn from the past and move forward.

"So in terms of if its behind us, I would say no, there's always room for improvement but we are working at it and there's a lot more dialogue and listening on both sides."

Sabga credited this year's success to workers at the brewery and bottling plants, whom he described as efficient team players.

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