Vietnam: SABMiller & Vinamilk open a $45 mln brewery

South Africa’s SABMiller, the second largest brewery company in the world by volume, and Vietnam’s top dairy firm Vinamilk formally opened a brewery Monday in Binh Duong Province, Thanhnien News reported March 27.

SABMiller Vietnam Joint Venture’s US$45 million facility, which began operations a few months ago, is situated in My Phuoc II Industrial Zone and has a capacity of 100 million liters per year.

Its first beer was introduced earlier this year under the brand name Zorok. It is set to make others like Peroni, Pilsner UrQuell and Miller. All its products are distributed through Vinamilk’s network.

The listed Vinamilk is the leading producer of dairy products in Vietnam with an overwhelming 75 percent market share of milk and dairy products.

SABMiller was formed in 2002 by the merger of South African Breweries and Miller Brewing and is traded on the London Stock Exchange where it is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.

The total beer market in Vietnam is estimated to be in excess of 1.5 billion liters a year.

28 March, 2007