Uganda Breweries Limited’s story in Uganda goes back 70 years and on Wednesday next week, one of the oldest companies in the country celebrates its anniversary. The eighteenth company to be registered in Uganda, in 1946, UBL has grown into one of Uganda’s most iconic brands and is a leading employer and the fourth largest tax payer.
And as outgoing managing director Nyimpini Mabunda says of the country’s pioneer brewery, UBL’s is a story of resilience, surviving through Uganda’s turbulent past to invest significantly in growing its capacity.
“In the early 90s our capacity was at 650k hectolitres and by 2001 we were at 750k hectolitres. In 2010 we invested Shs44 billion in a new state of the art bottling line, which doubled the brewery’s capacity and improved bottling versatility,” Mr Mabunda said.
“In 2012, we invested a further £1.4 million (Shs6.1 billion) in installing a mash filter to support the use of local raw material sourced from within the country thus significantly improving our brewing capacity to over 1.2 Million hectoliters a year,” he added.
As a result of that investment, the company has grown its volumes from 75,000 cases of beer per month in 1991 to more than 27,000 cases per day to date. UBL currently employs 22,000 people directly or indirectly, of who 17,000 are farmers.
UBL’s product portfolio includes beers, spirits, soft beverages and “ready to drinks” (RTDs) like Smirnoff Ice. The beers include Bell Lager, Guinness, the Tusker family, Senator, Pilsner and their most recent innovation Ngule. Its spirits’ portfolio includes Uganda Waragi, Johnnie Walker, Ciroc, Bond 7 in addition to various single malt
whiskies.
UBL AT 70
• Pioneer brewery in the country
• Named fourth taxpayer in Uganda in 2016 paying more than Shs110 billion annually
• Named second best Employer of the Year by Federation of Ugandan Employers
• Employs over 22,000 people directly and indirectly
• Invests more than Shs20 billion annually in farming communities, working with 17,000 farmers
• Production capacity up from 650k hectolitres in the 90s to over 1.2 million hectolitres to date.