SABMiller

SABMiller plc is an international company committed to achieving sustained commercial success, principally in beer and other beverages, but also with strategic investments in hotels and gaming. We achieve this by meeting the aspirations of our customers through quality products and services and by sharing fairly among all stakeholders the wealth and opportunities generated, and by seeking business partners who share our values. Thereby, we fulfil our goals of business growth and maximised long-term shareholder value, while behaving in a socially responsible and progressive manner. The South African Breweries Limited (SAB) is incorporated in London, with a listing on the London Stock Exchange and ownership of Castle Brewery in Johannesburg, South Africa. SAB becomes the first industrial company to be listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. The outbreak of the Boer War forces Castle Brewery to close for nearly a year. Company diversifies into soft drinks, buying a stake in the Schweppes Company. SAB acquires Ohlsson's Cape Breweries and United Breweries, thereby uniting the three largest South African brewing companies and gaining 90 percent of the domestic market. Company takes control of Amalgamated Beverage Industries Ltd., a Coca-Cola bottler in South Africa. International expansion into emerging markets begins with the purchase of majority control of Dreher Breweries, the largest brewer in Hungary. SAB enters the Chinese beer market through a joint venture with China Resources Enterprise Limited. SAB relocates headquarters to London, reincorporates as South African Breweries plc; divestment program reduces interests to beer, soft drinks, wine and spirits, and hotels and gaming. SAB enters Central American market through purchase of Honduran beverage company and creation of a joint venture, BevCo Ltd., with a prominent family in El Salvador. SAB acquires Miller Brewing Company, the number two U.S. beer maker, from Philip Morris Companies Inc. for $3.48 billion in stock; company renames itself SABMiller plc. Company makes its first major investment in Western Europe, purchasing a 60 percent stake in Birra Peroni S.p.A., Italy's number two brewer. South African Breweries embarked on an aggressive program of overseas expansion in the post-apartheid era, initially concentrating on the emerging markets of sub-Saharan Africa, central Europe (first entered in 1993, in Hungary), China (1994), India (2000), and Central America (2001). By the early 2000s SAB was the number two brewer in China and produced two-thirds of all beer in Africa. In July 2002 SAB acquired Miller Brewing Company, the number two U.S. beer producer, and renamed itself SABMiller plc. This move into the developed world was followed by a second, the June 2003 purchase of majority control of Birra Peroni S.p.A., Italy's second largest brewer. Via this acquisition spree, SABMiller had by late 2003 amassed a total of 115 breweries in about two dozen countries on four continents. The history of SAB is in many ways the history of the South African brewing industry, most notably through the government-ordered merger of the largest breweries in 1956. The company's history was also greatly influenced by the apartheid system and its effect on the domestic economy, on domestic firms, and on foreign investment in South Africa. The discovery of gold on the Witwatersrand (a region encompassing Johannesburg) in 1875 brought large numbers of prospectors to South Africa. Small outposts for white settlers were transformed into busy cities with new industries. Several brewmasters, most with little experience, began to produce a variety of beers that immediately gained popularity with the settlers. In 1889 a British sailor named Frederick Mead left his ship in Durban and took a job working in the canteen of a local army garrison at Fort Napier. While there, Mead, who was only 20, became acquainted with a businessman in Pietermaritzburg named George Raw. Neither of