SABMiller Tries Selling African Home-Brew

Andrews Bortey takes a seat with his wife outside the Tsui Anaa (translation: Patience Pays) pub in Accra, ready for a refreshment after a long day working as a fisherman in Ghana’s capital. He orders a Chibuku and gives the beer a vigorous shake before sipping the thick, milky-looking beverage. Chibuku, sold in blue-and-white cardboard cartons, is called “Shake-Shake” by devotees because the ingredients tend to separate and leave a yogurt-like paste at the bottom. The residue might be a turnoff to some Western drinkers. Yet SABMiller, known for clear beers including Peroni, Grolsch, Miller Lite, and South Africa’s Castle Lager, is counting on Bortey’s favorite brew to help tap the fast-growing beer market across the continent.

As beer consumption in western Europe and the U.S. slows, global beverage companies such as SABMiller, Diageo, and Heineken hope to gain market share among Africa’s expanding middle class. SABMiller’s first-half revenue from African countries excluding South Africa increased by 22 percent, to $1.8 billion. (An earlier incarnation of the company had been selling beer in South Africa since 1895.) With Chibuku, SABMiller is looking to win over lower-income Africans more used to “informal” beers, or home-brews. “It gets a whole new income level of consumers into the category,” says Morgan Stanley analyst Michael Steib. “With growing incomes, there’s ultimately scope to trade drinkers up.”