Les Sociétés Anonymes des Brasseries du Cameroun (SABC or Groupe SABC) is a

brewing company A brewery or brewing company is a business that makes and sells beer. The place at which beer is commercially made is either called a brewery or a beerhouse, where distinct sets of brewing equipment are called plant. The commercial brewing of beer ...

Cameroon Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west-central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; the C ...

. Their offices and main factory are in

Douala Douala is the largest city in Cameroon and its economic capital. It is also the capital of Cameroon's Littoral Region. Home to Central Africa's largest port and its major international airport, Douala International Airport (DLA), it is the com ...

, with other breweries in

Bafoussam Bafoussam is the capital and largest city of the West Region of Cameroon, in the Bamboutos Mountains. It is the 3rd most important (financially) city in Cameroon, after Yaoundé and Douala. The ''communauté urbaine'' (Urban Community) of Bafous ...

Garoua Garoua or Garua (Fula: Garwa 𞤺𞤢𞤪𞤱𞤢) is a port city and the capital of the North Region of Cameroon, lying on the Benue River. A thriving centre of the textiles and cotton industries, the city has approximately 1,285,000 inhabita ...

, and

Yaoundé Yaoundé (; , ) is the capital of Cameroon and, with a population of more than 2.8 million, the second-largest city in the country after the port city Douala. It lies in the Centre Region of the nation at an elevation of about 750 metres (2,50 ...

. Les Brasseries et Glacieres Internationales (BGI) owns a 75% share in the company, and

Heineken Heineken Lager Beer ( nl, Heineken Pilsener), or simply Heineken () is a pale lager beer with 5% alcohol by volume produced by the Dutch brewing company Heineken N.V. Heineken beer is sold in a green bottle with a red star. History On 15 Feb ...

owns 8.8%.SKOL.

Beer

Les Brasseries brews, bottles, and distributes several brands of

beer Beer is one of the oldest and the most widely consumed type of alcoholic drink in the world, and the third most popular drink overall after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches, mainly derived from ce ...

: "33" Export, Beaufort, Castel, and

Tuborg Tuborg is a Danish brewing company founded in 1873 on a harbour in Hellerup, an area North of Copenhagen, Denmark. Since 1970 it has been part of the Carlsberg Group. The brewery's flagship, the Tuborg pilsner, was brewed for the first time ...

, as well as three beers from De Hooiberg ( The Haystack):

Amstel The Amstel () is a river in the province of North Holland in the Netherlands. It flows from the Aarkanaal and Drecht in Nieuwveen northwards, passing Uithoorn, Amstelveen, and Ouderkerk aan de Amstel, to the IJ in Amsterdam. Annually, the r ...

(since 2005), and Mützig. Les Brasseries bottles and distributes

Coca-Cola Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. Originally marketed as a temperance drink and intended as a patent medicine, it was invented in the late 19th century by John Stith Pemberton in Atlant ...

products in Cameroon, and local soft drink trademarks include

Top A spinning top, or simply a top, is a toy with a squat body and a sharp point at the bottom, designed to be spun on its vertical axis, balancing on the tip due to the gyroscopic effect. Once set in motion, a top will usually wobble for a few ...

and Djino. Today, les Brasseries du Cameroun holds a 75% share of the Cameroonian market for beer and soft drinks. Sales for 2000 were 170 billion FCFA (250 million

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

) and profits were 8.5 billion FCFA (11 million US$).Siaka interview. Sales came primarily from within Cameroon (95%), with the other 5% from exports to Chad, Equatorial Guinea, and

Gabon Gabon (; ; snq, Ngabu), officially the Gabonese Republic (french: République gabonaise), is a country on the west coast of Central Africa. Located on the equator, it is bordered by Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the nort ...

. The company began construction of a factory in Equatorial Guinea on 14 November 2000. This was scheduled to open in 2001. In its annual report for 2012 (published on 27 June 2013), Les Brasseries produced 4.97 million hectoliters of beer, an improvement of 4.5% over 2011. Its market share of beer production in Cameroon stands at 82.2%. Chargeurs casiers2

Football

Les Brasseries owns several Cameroonian football teams and is a major sponsor of the

Cameroonian national football team The Cameroon national football team (French language, French: ''équipe du Cameroun de football''), also known as the Indomitable Lions (French: ''les lions indomptables''), represents Cameroon in men's international Association football, footb ...

. Since 1994, SABC has run a football school in Douala called l'École de Football des Brasseries du Cameroun (EFBC). Many of Cameroon's star players have come through this facility.Bennafla and Calbérac. In September 2008, Les Brasseries Du Cameroun announced its acquisition of the majority shares in SIAC Isenbeck, which is a subsidiary of the Germany-based group

Warsteiner Warsteiner () beer is brewed in the Arnsberg Forest Nature Park outside of Warstein, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Warsteiner has been owned by the Cramer family since 1753. Warsteiner is Germany's largest privately owned brewery; its b ...

. This is in a major move by Warsteiner to re-orient the management of its interests in Africa through decentralisation and partnership. SIAC Isenbeck which started activities in Cameroon about a decade ago suffered a significant setback a few years later. This led to the company’s inactivity for a while after which it resurfaced.Eden Newspaper - Brasseries Buys Over SIAC-Isenbeck
Retrieved on 2008-10-26

Company history

Les Brasseries was founded in 1948 as a subsidiary of the French company les Brasseries et Glaceries d'Indochine (BGI). The company's first factory was in Douala, and others opened in Yaoundé, then Garoua, Bafoussam, and finally Limbe. Healthy profits and growth allowed the company to set up its own subsidiaries, including Tangui mineral water and a

glass bottle A glass bottle is a bottle made from glass. Glass bottles can vary in size considerably, but are most commonly found in sizes ranging between about 200 millilitres and 1.5 litres. Common uses for glass bottles include food condiments, soda, liq ...

plant. Les Brasseries was the only provider of such bottles within Cameroon, so even its competitors relied on it for these. Les Brasseries enjoyed a monopoly on the Cameroonian market until 1982 when Nouvelles brasseries africaines ( NOBRA) began production. In 1987, les Brasseries intensified its activities. However, la Crise, a nationwide

recession In economics, a recession is a business cycle contraction when there is a general decline in economic activity. Recessions generally occur when there is a widespread drop in spending (an adverse demand shock). This may be triggered by various ...

, hit that same year, and les Brasseries du Cameroun struggled to remain profitable for the better part of the next decade. The company's multiple factories gave it a decisive edge over its competition by greatly easing distribution across the country. Even when SBAC was forced to close its Limbe brewery, it still had three plants. As Cameroon's economy recovered somewhat in 1995, les Brasseries recovered as well. This was partially due to increased utilisation of locally available materials such as

maize Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. The ...

instead of imported

barley Barley (''Hordeum vulgare''), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains, particularly in Eurasia as early as 10,000 years ago. Globally 70% of barley p ...

. By 1997, the company's financial situation was comparable to what it had been a decade earlier, although the number of bottles brewed was only about half of what it had been in 1987. Les Brasseries du Cameroun's parent company, BGI, was purchased by the

Castel Group Castel Group (French Groupe Castel) is a French beverage company. It was established in 1949 by Pierre Castel, who continues to run the company as a family-owned concern. Castel is the largest French wine producer and owns the biggest French an ...

, a company better known for its wines, in 1990. By the end of the decade, les Brasseries had captured 70% of Cameroon's alcoholic beverage market and 80% of the soft drink market. In 1994, SABC figures indicated that the brewery had produced 207,500,000 L of beer and 56,000,000 L of soft drinks.

References

Bibliography

* Bennafla, Karine, and Calbérac, Yann (30 April 2003).
Repas camerounais
. ''Cafés Géographiques''. Retrieved 3 February 2006. *

. 15 November 2000. Retrieved 3 February 2006. * Ndongo, R. D. Lebogo (19 July 2005).
Déploiement hors des frontières
. ''Cameroon Tribune''. Retrieved 3 February 2006. * Ntiga, Léger (13 April 2005).
Heineken s'installe: La bière hollandaise est désormais embouteillée et comercialisée par les Brasseries du Cameroun
". ''Mutations Quotidien''. Retrieved 3 February 2006. * SKOL International.
Breweries List per country: Cameroon
. Retrieved 3 February 2006.

External links

Les Brasseries du Cameroun official site
(in French) {{DEFAULTSORT:Brasseries Du Cameroun Breweries of Africa Food and drink companies established in 1948 Coca-Cola bottlers Drink companies of Cameroon Companies based in Douala