Angola: Sagres beer to be brewed in Angola

Portuguese beer company Sociedade Central de Cervejas reached an agreement with Angolan beverage distribution company Sociedade de Distribuição de Bebidas de Angola, Limitada (Sodiba) for the production of Sagres beer in Angola, Portuguese financial daily Diário Económico reported on February 9.

The newspaper also reported that the agreement had been signed for months and provides for Sodiba to produce Sagres beer in Angola to the same standards with which it is manufactured in Portugal, as a result of the approval of this agreement by Sociedade Central de Cervejas and under the supervision of its main shareholder, the Heineken group.

Sagres will be the first international beer to be produced in Angola and will have the same branding as the beer sold on the Portuguese market.

The Angolan market has always been considered strategic for Portuguese brewers, but suffered a major setback with the Angolan economic crisis that resulted from a fall in international oil prices and, more specifically, with the entry into force in 2015, of the new customs tariff in Angola, with a resulting increase in taxes on all alcoholic beverages that has had a negative impact on consumption of imported beers.

For Central de Cervejas, the Angolan market in 2014 was worth about 20% of global exports of the Portuguese Sagres brand but the following year and after the crisis took effect, it accounted for just 13%.

The new plant built by Sodiba, whose shareholders are Isabel dos Santos and Sindica Dokola, is located in an industrial area of 40 hectares and has an installed annual production capacity of 144 million litres, which could be increased to 200 million litres per year.

In addition to Sagres beer, Sodiba, whose plant required an investment of US$150 million, will also launch a new 100% Angolan beer, called “Luandina” which will be available in the Angolan market by the end of the first half of 2017.

10 February, 2017