SOUTH African Breweries (SAB) owned brands that could be counted on two hands 20 years ago, and four of them were Castle: Lager, Draught, Lite and Milk Stout. The other big brands were Carling Black Label and Hansa.The previously iconic Lion Lager was slowly being squeezed to death, there were labels of little consequence and some licence agreements.Founded in 1895, SAB took a commanding grip on the domestic beer market and saw off many aspirant interlopers through ruthless attention to detail, costs and distribution channels. Marketing was largely irrelevant.In the ’70s and ’80s, SAB chairman Frans Cronje and CEO Dick Goss were two of the most influential business leaders in SA. The beer division was larger than most of SAB’s other businesses, but an integral part of the Byzantine financial structures created when most doors around the world were closed to South African business.In 1994, democracy arrived and new opportunities, the global stage and there was a need to recalibrate q...
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