Nigerian Breweries Plc, is the largest

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 ...

in Nigeria. It serves the Nigerian market and West Africa.

History

Early years

The idea to establish a brewery in Lagos was first promoted by

Frank Samuel Frank Samuel (1889–1954) was a British businessman, inventor and philanthropist who was a managing director and later chairman of the United Africa Company (UAC). Life Samuel was born into a family that ran a music business, the business manufac ...

of UAC prior to

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. But it was not until the war ended that concrete steps were taken to kick start such a project. Market leaders in the sector were all imported brands with the absence of a locally produced beer. UAC did not have a technical history in beer-making, leading the firm to enter into a technical agreement with Heineken and investments from other merchandise companies in Nigeria including John Holt, GBO, SCOA,

CFAO Naval Base Okinawa, now Naval Facility Okinawa, was and is a number of bases built after the Battle of Okinawa by United States Navy on the Okinawa Island of Japan. The naval bases were built to support the landings on Okinawa on April 1, 1945, an ...

and UTC who all took some equity interest in the new company. Nigerian Breweries was incorporated in 1946. Construction of the brewery began at Iganmu, Lagos in 1947 and was completed in 1949. The first bottle of its brand, the

STAR Lager Star Beer is a Nigerian beer produced by Nigerian Breweries. History After the end of World War II, UAC under the leadership of Frank Samuel promoted the establishment of a beer company in Nigeria. In November 1946, UAC in partnership with He ...

, rolled off the bottling lines of its

Lagos Lagos (Nigerian English: ; ) is the largest city in Nigeria and the List of cities in Africa by population, second most populous city in Africa, with a population of 15.4 million as of 2015 within the city proper. Lagos was the national ca ...

brewery in June 1949. NBL utilized consumer

market research Market research is an organized effort to gather information about target markets and customers: know about them, starting with who they are. It is an important component of business strategy and a major factor in maintaining competitiveness. Mark ...

to understand the demands of the market and developed a marketing strategy around

that used advertisements to show a link between drinking beer and modernity. It was one of the early companies to use sophisticated market research skills and to heavily advertise a Nigerian brand.

Development

Star attained market leadership in 1960 which created a need to build more factories in Nigeria. To get products to consumers, the company gave rights to sell its brand to select distributors and built depots at strategic locations within the country. As the company expanded into other regions, it established more breweries such as Aba Brewery in 1957 and

Kaduna Kaduna is the capital city of Kaduna State, and the former political capital of Northern Region, Nigeria, Northern Nigeria. It is located in north-western Nigeria, on the Kaduna River. It is a trade Centre and a major transportation hub as the ...

Brewery in 1963. By 1971, the company was one of the largest industries within the country in terms of capital investment. In 1982, another brewery was added in

Ibadan Ibadan (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Oyo State, in Nigeria. It is the third-largest city by population in Nigeria after Lagos and Kano, with a total population of 3,649,000 as of 2021, and over 6 million people within its me ...

. In September 1993, the company acquired its fifth brewery in Enugu, and in October 2003, its sixth brewery, sited at Ameke in Enugu. Ama Brewery began brewing on the 22 March 2003 and at 3 million hectolitres is the largest brewery in Nigeria. In addition, NBL introduced assorted non-alcoholic mineral and flavored drinks under Rainbow brand that included, Krola, Tip Top Tonic Water and Sundowner soda water. It also introduced Gulder into the market and acquired rights to market Schweppes bitter lemon in the country. In 1972, it sold its non-alcoholic drink franchise. In the 1980s, NBL gradually increased its market share of the alcoholic beverage market at the expense of smaller breweries. In 1988, NBL facilities had to undergo a conversion process when the government banned imports of barley. The firm employed Heineken's technical assistance with the conversion process and also established a grain farm in Niger State to supply locally produced grains for the breweries.

21st century

In 2010, NBL acquired beer factories from Sona Group makers of maltonic malt drink and franchise owners of Goldberg beer. The factories included Sona Breweries at Ota and Kaduna and Life Breweries at Onitsha. In 2014, the firm merged with Consolidated Breweries, producers of 33 export and Williams Dark Ale, a merger led by the company's leading shareholder Heineken. In December 2018, a Nigerian court ruled that Nigerian Breweries misled its consumers by selling Amstel Malt as a low-sugar product, which was an inaccurate statement. In March 2019, a Nigerian Federal High Court dismissed Nigerian Breweries' suit against the National Lottery Regulatory Commission (filed in 2018) which asked the Court to look into the authority of the Lottery Commission regarding sales promotion to consumers. Nigerian Breweries had been nailed by the Lottery Commission for running illegal lottery operations as part of a marketing promotion. In 2019, the journalists Olivier van Beemen and Femke van Zeijl won a De Tegel prize for their revelations about Nigerian Breweries' high-end corruption. In December 2020, Nigerian Breweries launched the tequila-flavored beer

Desperados Desperado may refer to: * Outlaw, particularly in the American Old West Books * ''Desperadoes'' (comics), a comic book series * ''Desperadoes'' (novel), a 1979 novel by Ron Hansen * Desperado Publishing, an American independent comic book publ ...

. In August 2021, Hans Essaadi became the new CEO of Nigerian Breweries.Adepeju Adenuga
New CEO resumes duty at Nigerian Breweries
''Punchng.com'', 4 August 2021

Products

Most of the products are packed in returnable bottles and all products are now available in cans. Fayrouz, Maltina and Amstel Malta are also produced in P.E.T Bottles The company's head office is located in Lagos.

Alcoholic beverages

*Star Lager (launched in 1949) Pale Lager *Gulder lager beer (1970) Pale Lager *Legend Extra Stout (1992) 6.5% ABV Extra Stout * Heineken Lager (June 1998) Premium Lager *Tiger Premium Lager Beer (2018) *

Goldberg Lager Goldberg or Goldberger may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Goldberg Ensemble, a British string ensemble * '' Goldberg Variations'', a set of 30 keyboard variations by Johann Sebastian Bach * '' The Goldbergs (broadcast series)'', American ra ...

(October 2011) *Life Continental Lager (October 2011) *Star Lite Lager (February 2014) Pale Lager *33 Export Lager (January 2015) *Williams Dark Ale (January 2015) *Turbo King Stout (January 2015) *More Lager (January 2015) *Star Radler (July 2015) - now in two varieties, Citrus and Red Fruits *Desperados (December 2020) Tequila- Flavoured Pale Lager *Ace Rhythm (September 2015) *

Strongbow Cider Strongbow is a dry cider produced by H. P. Bulmer in the United Kingdom since 1960. Strongbow is the world's leading cider with a 15 per cent volume share of the global cider market and a 29 per cent volume share of the UK cider market.Alcoholic ...

(November 2015)

Alcohol-free drinks

*Maltina (1976). (Originally launched as a classic malt drink, now being made in three variants - Maltina Classic, Maltina Vanilla, and Maltina Pineapple) *

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 riv ...

Malta (1994). *Amstel Malta Ultra (2020) *Fayrouz, in pear, pineapple and exotic flavour (2006) *Climax Energy drink(2010) *Malta Gold (October 2011) *Himalt (January 2015)

References

External links

Official website
{{Authority control Breweries in Nigeria Food and drink companies based in Lagos Manufacturing companies based in Lagos Heineken subsidiaries Food and drink companies established in 1946 1946 establishments in Nigeria Nigerian subsidiaries of foreign companies