Ethiopia: New 1.6 mln hl brewery coming to Ethiopia

Built with an investment of 1.5 billion birr (around $53.1 million) Kangaroo Plast, a local company, is set to introduce a new brewery to Ethiopia market, the New Business Ethiopia reported on March 5.

The new factory has the production capacity of 1.6 million hectolitres and 800,000 hectolitres of packaging capacity per year, according to Ephrem Yirga, Board Chairman of United Brewery and Kangaroo Plast.

“We used the most advanced technology of the industry. We used the technology of a well-known machine manufacturing German company known as Krones. The company has solely done all the manufacturing and installation of the machines from A to Z,” he said, indicating that the whole production system is fully integrated with SAP technology with modern waste management and treatment plant.

“…We have also allocated enough budgets to undertake corporate social responsibility activities benefiting the societies and the environment around the brewery… We are so lucky to find a high quality ground water, which doesn’t need that much treatment. Modgo is a very strategic location for us to easily access Addis Ababa market as well as the central part ad south eastern markets of the country,” he says.

The investment project initiated by the late Belachew Yirga of Kangaroo Business Group some years back has got a foreign partner last year, according to Ephrem Yirga. “I am delighted to complete what my brother has started,” he told NewBusinessEthiopia.com.

The new brewery, which is being launched in collaboration with United African Beverages, has created jobs for 230 employees. The number of jobs is expected to increase, according Ephrem, who mentioned that Kangaroo Plast has selected the best and well experienced partner in the brewery industry to penetrate into the beer market of Ethiopia.

Over the past years the beer market in Ethiopia has been growing attracting many investors. Currently there are several breweries operating in the country with 100 million plus population.

Heineken, Diageo, Dashen, BGI Ethiopia and Habesha breweries are the major players in the market producing different brands such as Bedele Beer, Dashen Beer, Walia Beer, St.George Beer, Habesha Beer and Harar Beer.

The challenges the industry is facing include shortage of malt, which led most breweries to rely on import and the recent alcohol commercials’ ban on broadcast media by the government.

04 March, 2019