South Africa | What are we to make of this? Namibia Breweries Limited (NBL), a listed producer of beer (Windhoek lager), soft drinks and RTDs, received an offer on 1 October 2021, to sell its loss-making 25 percent stake in the Heineken South Africa joint venture to Heineken for an undisclosed amount.

South Africa | Drinks company Distell will conclude talks with Heineken about its takeover offer one way or another by the end of September 2021.

South Africa | Official data, published in August 2021, show that white wine has seen the biggest price increase, rising by an average of 12.8 percent between June 2020 and June 2021. This was followed by whiskey (+8.1 percent), red wine (+6.7 percent) and spirit coolers and ciders (+4.5 percent). The average price of beer has increased by only 3.3 percent over the 12-month period, the statistics body said.

South Africa | Hundreds of liquor stores and several beer warehouses in KwaZulu-Natal (Durban) and Gauteng (Johannesburg) were ransacked by rioters during the recent unrest. By some estimate 800 outlets were vandalised and looted.

Strategic marketing | Messe München South Africa, organisers of IFAT Africa, food & drink technology Africa and analytica Lab Africa, have moved to enhance the value adds and strategic marketing for their exhibitors.

South Africa | So Heineken’s CEO Dolf van den Brink could be clinching his first major deal. There has been speculation about a tie-up between Heineken and Distell for years. Distell is run by former SAB executives, not least CEO Richard Rushton, 54, who was appointed to its board in 2013, following various leadership roles with SABMiller.

Mozambique | An unlucky coincidence: Just as AB-InBev celebrated the opening of a new brewery near Maputo on 1 April 2021, the French energy giant Total, at the end of April, declared force majeure and withdrew from its Mozambique liquid natural gas (LNG) project indefinitely.

South Africa | It was another blow to the country’s brewers that the government decided to curtail alcohol sales over the Easter weekend – especially as they were only given two days’ notice. The Beer Association of South Africa (BASA) criticised the decision, saying it is “unnecessary” and has “no valid basis”.

Nigeria | Nigerian Breweries, the country’s major brewer and 56 percent owned by Heineken, scaled up the remuneration of its top management by at least 25.2 percent last year. This came despite the covid pandemic battering its business and slashing its profit by more than half, the website Premium Times reports.

South Africa | It took brewers by surprise that the Government, without a warning, increased the excise duties on alcohol and tobacco products by 8 percent in its 2021 budget. The government argued this was to discourage their consumption and promote good public health.