Jamaica: Diageo looking to improve supply of local flagship beer Red Stripe

Diageo Plc, which trades as Red Stripe in Jamaica, is looking to improve the supply of the flagship Red Stripe beer and other products on the local market following the Government’s relaxing the restrictive measures that were in place to help control the spread of COVID-19, the Jamaica Loop News reported on September 19.

According to Head of Commercial Operations at the company, Sean Wallace, while there is no shortage of Red Stripe beer on the Jamaican market, some of the company’s products have been missing from the stocks of retailers.

Wallace said the delivery of the different brands that the company manufactures has been affected by the four continuous weekends of three-day no-movement which were in place.

“Our operations are driven by a circular model whereby we recycle our bottles for resale to the trade. With the (a) bottle shortage, we had to readjust our production plan, which created delays in restocking and sale to our customers,” said Wallace.

The no-movement days started each Saturday evening and ended on Wednesday at 5 am, eliminating commercial activities on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday of each week.

On Wednesday, September 15, Prime Minister Andrew Holness announced in Parliament, a change in the policy that was imposed under the Disaster Risk Management Act (DRMA). No-movement will now be only on Sundays.

According to Wallace, the expectation is that with the change, Diageo will return to the normal level of production which was in place before the imposition of the three-day no-movement extended weekends.

“With the no-movement days now reduced to only Sundays, we anticipate our operations will gradually return to normal, provided of course our consumers and customers return their empty bottles and crates that have accumulated over the last few weeks of lockdowns.

“We are also accelerating our efforts to collect bottles from the trade through various initiatives, such as increasing the number of outlets at which consumers can return their bottles, increasing the number of trucks delivering and collecting bottles from retailers, executing community collection drives to retrieve bottles directly from consumers, and a new communication campaign encouraging consumers to return bottles to their nearest wholesale, bar, supermarket or liquor store,” said Wallace.

He urged consumers to return bottles for cash and not wait until “Christmas time” to do so, which he said will enable the company to increase production in time for the normal heavy demand for the products during the Christmas period.

20 September, 2021