E-Malt.com News article: Zimbabwe: SABMiller recommences reporting results of its Zimbabwe associate

SABMiller plc announced on October, 18 that it has recommenced reporting the results of its Zimbabwe associate, Delta Corporation Limited with effect from 1 April 2010.

The business contributed lager volumes of 0.3 million hectolitres in the six months to 30 September 2010, SABMiller said.

Delta, in which SABMiller Africa now holds a 36% interest, had previously been a significant contributor to SABMiller's Africa operations. However, in 2005 the business stopped paying dividends and remitting capital due to foreign currency shortages and in 2006 SABMiller ceased to include the results of Delta in its reporting. Following the effective ‘dollarisation' of the economy in 2009, the end of hyper-inflation and the stabilisation of the Zimbabwean economy, SABMiller is including its share of Delta's volumes and financial results in its reporting from the beginning of the current financial year.

Delta is the largest brewer and soft drinks bottler in Zimbabwe, with additional interests in the production of malted barley, the manufacture of PET plastic products, food processing and the production and distribution of wines and spirits. Whilst not included in SABMiller's results, in the year ended 31 March 2010 Delta's lager sales volumes (based on SABMiller Africa's 36% interest) were 0.4 million hectolitres. Its key lager brands include Castle Lager, Eagle, Lion Lager, Carling Black Label, Golden Pilsener and Bohlinger's.

Mark Bowman, Managing Director of SABMiller Africa, commented:

"All credit goes to the Delta management team, whose efforts in keeping the business running in the last few years have been little short of heroic. Despite extreme hardship and untold obstacles, they have continued to supply Zimbabwean consumers with quality products and to secure the livelihoods of many thousands of people, either directly employed by the business or dependent on it for a living."


20 October, 2010