Brewers caught on the hop
How Heineken captured SA under SAB's nose
It was judged the most exciting thing to happen in the local beer industry in 40 years. In 2007, seemingly out of the blue, Heineken took back control of the production, marketing and distribution of Amstel from SA Breweries (SAB). Old hands at SAB still talk of Heineken "stealing" Amstel. In hindsight, it’s difficult to imagine why SAB took such offence. It is puzzling why it didn’t realise that South American-based BevCo taking a 15% stake in acquisition-obsessed SABMiller might trigger termination of the 40-year Amstel trademark agreement. Hubris perhaps? Or just common or garden arrogance from SA’s long-term monopoly supplier of beer? Back in 2007, SAB controlled a tad more than 98% of the local beer market. It had built Amstel into an attractive premium brand with a 9.7% share of the market and an extremely valuable 20% contribution to SAB operating profits.Since the traumatic loss of Amstel — and despite Castle Lite’s success in claiming a chunk of Amstel’s share of the market...
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