E-Malt.com News article: Sierra Leone: Sierra Leone Brewery replaces imported can Star beer with bottled Star lager beer

In a press release issued on 13th May 2008, the Sierra Leone Brewery Limited (SLBL) has notified their numerous customers that the bottled brand of the Star lager beer will soon flood the market again, Awareness Times Newspaper in Freetown reported May 19.

According to the release, the importation of Star Lager Beer in cans from Nigeria was a tactical "stop gap" measure since their brewhouse was being upgraded and no production was in progress within that period. Bearing in mind that the brewhouse upgrade would necessarily lead to the shutting down of that facility for up to four weeks with a consequent shortage of our locally produced brands (especially Star and Maltina), the local management of SLBL contacted their sister company, Nigeria Breweries Plc to come to their aid by providing them with Star Can so that the brand will not be entirely missing in the country.

The release further states that in the company’s efforts to improve the reliability, consistency and efficiency of the production facilities of Sierra Leone Brewery Limited, the principal stakeholders in 2007 approved Le.2.6 billion (Euro 0.606 million) capital expenditure for the comprehensive upgrade of their brewhouse. With the planned upgrade now completed, the release went on, SLBL now have a "state of the art" automated brewhouse that will ensure consistent high quality of our locally brewed products. The automation of their brewhouse will completely eliminate unnecessary human errors thereby ensuring an even higher quality of our locally produced brands, including the nation’s favorite beer-STAR.

The release informed the general public that the brewhouse upgrade has now been completed and they have since commissioned the new automated brewhouse. And that they want everybody to know that as soon as all the aesthetics (tilling, painting, etc) are completed, the company will arrange for the formal launching of the brewhouse, which the release intimated to be a Le.2.6 billion investment.

To prevent the influx of imported brands, SLBL received thirteen (13) 20ft containers of Star cans during the shortage of the Nation’s favorite beer –Star in 33cl bottles.

The release ended by making a distinction between ‘Best Before’ and ‘Expire’ Dates.

They said for the avoidance of doubt, it is important to point out that "best before" dates do not imply that the product has "expired", but that the quality of the product will not be guaranteed by the manufacturer to be the same after that date. This is not the same case with products like prescription drugs which actually do "expire" and can be injurious if consumed after "expiration". Specifically with regards the "best before" dates on the imported Star cans, they stated that all the imported Star cans were sold to their distributors by mid-April 2008, and that they had since then been tracking the products to ensure that all the cans are sold before the inscribed "best before" dates.


20 May, 2008