Heineken buys craft brewer Stellenbrau

It was probably only a matter of time before Stellenbrau would succumb to a sweet offer from Heineken. At the end of March 2017 it was reported that Heineken’s South African unit and Stellenbrau had clinched a deal. No transaction details were disclosed.

The move has long been expected by industry insiders. Not only did Heineken need a domestic craft beer label for its stable of premium brands in South Africa, where the Dutch brewer is dwarfed by AB-InBev in terms of market share (10 percent for Heineken versus 89 for AB-InBev), what’s more, Heineken’s joint venture Namibia Breweries has been contract brewing two of Stellenbrau’s beers since 2015.

The company, which is based in the wine region of Stellenbosch near Cape Town, produces four flagship beers, including a red lager with rooibos, and a hefeweizen.

Local press quoted Heineken South Africa Managing Director Ruud van den Eijnden as saying that Heineken wants Stellenbrau to keep doing what it does best, as the group has no plans to “corporatize” the brewery.

The deal is not the first for Heineken in the global craft beer industry. In 2015 Heineken bought a 50 percent stake in Californian craft brewer Lagunitas for reportedly USD 500 million and in February 2017 Heineken’s New Zealand subsidiary DB Breweries took over Tuatara, one of the country’s largest craft brewers, which produced more than 20,000 hl beer last year.