Unibra buys stake in private label brewer Martens
Unless you shop for your beer at the discount supermarket Aldi, you would not know that behind Aldi’s big seller Karlsquell beer is the family-owned Belgian brewer Martens.
Located in eastern Belgium close to the German border, Martens is a “giant”, well, in the Belgian beer market. With an estimated annual output of 3 million hl beer, it is the number two brewer behind AB-InBev. Locally its best-known brands are Martens Pils and Sezoens, but the bulk of its production is private label beers for the likes of Aldi, Carrefour and Metro. The 257 year old family brewery, which has been going for eight generations, exports 85 percent of its production.
Because of its focus on private label production, Martens has preferred to keep a low profile, which is also true for the Belgian Relecom family, which owns Unibra. Only after an investigative journalist broke the news that Unibra had bought a 29 percent stake in Martens’ holding company Bockhold for EUR 17.14 million at the end of July 2015 did Martens send out a press release confirming the transaction in August 2015.
Unsurprisingly, Unibra is hardly known in its own country because it has been active in Africa for decades. It has interests in breweries in Rwanda and in Ethiopia, where the company, together with its partners, is building a new brewery. One of those partners is Martens, the Belgian magazine Trends reported.
Furthermore, Unibra has distribution rights for the brand Skol lager in Africa. An estimated 17 million hl of this brand are sold in Africa, including through the network of French brewer Castel. The rights for Skol in Latin America are owned by AmBev, a subsidiary of AB-InBev
Unibra was a listed holding company until 2011 when Marie-Thérèse Bordot, the widow of founder Michel Relecom, bought the shares she did not already own and took the company private after half a century of public ownership. Since then things have become really quiet around Unibra.
The strategic partnership between Martens and Unibra was explained thus: “Brouwerij Martens is particularly strong in manufacturing. Unibra is good at marketing and sales. Brouwerij Martens will brew our beer for export to Africa.”
What did not need stressing was the fact that Martens needed fresh money to repay a loan to the Far Eastern group (FENC) from Taiwan, with whom Martens set up a USD 100 million (3 million hl) brewery near Shanghai in 2009, Trends reported.
The entry of Unibra has diluted the Martens family stake in the brewer. The brothers Jan and Fons Martens maintain a 29.16 percent each as does Unibra. FENC retains its stake of 12.5 percent.
Trends says that Martens’ Holding Bockhold has solid financials. According to Trends, turnover in its last financial year was EUR 128 million, with an operating profit of EUR 2.4 million. Net profit was only EUR 33,217, which points to fairly small margins. This is understandable, argues Trends, considering that Martens’ core business is the production of private labels.
By comparison, Unibra’s figures look far better. Again, according to Trends, its 2013 balance sheet showed a debt free company, with EUR 32 million in cash and EUR 28 million in short term investments.
