Mozambique & UK: Mozambican beer to become available at Nando’s restaurants across the UK in April

Mozambican brewery Cervejas de Moçambique (CDM) will start supplying its popular 2M beer to Mozambique-themed chicken restaurant Nando’s across the UK from April, Zitamar News reported on January 28.

The company, a subsidiary of brewing giant SABMiller, “plans to start supplying Nando’s UK with its 2M lager from April,” said a CDM spokesperson. Nando’s is pricing the beer at £3.70 per 330ml bottle.

Nando’s has 1,049 restaurants worldwide with the largest number (339) in the UK, according to a website run by the company’s fans. Nando’s UK currently stocks Portuguese beers Sagres and Superbock, along with Brazil’s Brahma and Savanna Cider from South Africa.

Nando’s has started stocking 2M in selected restaurants over recent weeks as a pilot scheme, but CDM will start shipping the lager to the UK in significant quantities from April.

The deal will be a welcome boost for CDM, which saw profits fall 3% last year to MT1.4 billion. The company reported a 2% fall in beer sales in its 2014 results though sales of lager were up 12% year on year, with almost 1 hectolitre sold over the 12-month period.

The deal is also a timely boost for Mozambique’s economy, with the central bank and finance ministry having recently emphasised the need to diversify its export base.

The country is experiencing a balance of payments crisis since a fall in the price of its key commodity exports – coal, gas, and aluminium – led to a drop in the value of the Mozambican currency, the metical. A recent bounce in the value of the currency is expected to be short-lived if the balance of payments crisis is not resolved.

The Government of Mozambique owns a 1.78% share in Cervejas de Moçambique; Mozambican investment company SPI owns 4.78%, while another, Moçambique Investimentos Limitada, owns 1.32%. State social security fund INSS owns 1.81%, and employees and ‘others’ own 11.14%. The company, which is listed on the Mozambique stock exchange the Bolsa de Valores de Moçambique (BVM), last year appointed former government minister Tomaz Salomão chairman of the company’s executive board.

Nando’s is owned by South African investor Dick Enthoven and accounts for half of his $1.1 billion fortune, according to financial news and data agency Bloomberg.

SABMiller, which owns a 79.8% stake in CDM, is currently in the throes of a £71 bln takeover by Netherlands-based Anheuser-Busch InBev. The deal is expected to be completed in the second half of 2016, pending clearance from regulators and shareholders.

29 January, 2016