Botswana: Former Sechaba Brewery employee claims ownership rights over beer recipe
Sechaba Brewery Holdings Limited (SBHL) has dismissed allegations made by a former employee, who claimed he is the creator of a recipe for Botswana's only locally brewed lager, St Louis, All Africa Global Media communicated June 02.
"This issue is a non-starter. Reality and common business ethics dictates that when an employee is hired by a company, the Intellectual Property (IP) of such engagement remains the property of the company in question," the group managing director, Hloni Matsela said during the presentation of SBHL year-end results.
This follows a perceived war of words that erupted between Kgalagadi Breweries Limited (KBL) and Shadreck Nyadza, the self-imposed creator of St Louis, who served KBL as a brewer from 1978-1999.
"Actually there never was a war of words, it was a one-sided war made by this man. Make no mistake, St Louis belongs to KBL. We cannot waste time on such complaints," Matsela said. He also revealed that KBL is on a mission to improve the sale and marketing of its products as the company has registered a general decline in overall performance.
In a previous interview with Mmegi, Nyadza had claimed that KBL is profiting from his idea. "The beer that you call St Lou is today is my product," he claimed. He added that while he did not mind KBL making business from his "idea," Nyadza said his only problem is that the South Africans are profiting out of this.
Nyadza claims to be in possession of documents containing signed specifications and insisted that KBL did not have St Louis' specification manual.
St. Louis was recalled from the South African markets last year because of its poor reception. However, the lager has a market share in most SADC countries. SBHL is a parent company of both Kgalagadi Breweries Limited (KBL) and Botswana Breweries Limited (BBL). SABMiller Plc owns 40 percent of KBL.
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