SABMiller to Build $100 Million Brewery in Southe Eastern Nigerian City

SABMiller Plc, the world’s second- largest brewer by volume, plans to build a $100 million brewery in Nigeria’s southeastern city of Onitsha within two years, an official said.

“The timing is right to capitalize on our company’s growth potential by expanding our footprints in Nigeria,” Simon Hawad, the brewer’s strategy development director for Africa, told reporters today in Onitsha, about 600 kilometers (375 miles) east of the country’s economic capital, Lagos. “We’re therefore confident the benefits will be significant.”

Africa’s most populous country, with more than 140 million people, is potentially the continent’s largest consumer market. SABMiller, which has brewing or beverage interests in 32 African countries, entered the Nigerian market in 2009 with the purchase of controlling interests in Pabod Breweries, based in the southern oil hub of Port Harcourt.

The London-based company will compete in Africa’s second- biggest beer market with rivals including Diageo Plc, which has sold more Guinness in Nigeria than in the beer’s native Ireland since 2007, and Heineken BV, which controls Nigeria Breweries Plc, the country’s biggest brewer.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-25/sabmiller-to-build-100-million-brewery-in-southe-eastern-nigerian-city.html