The South African Breweries (SAB) has repositioned its corporate brand with a brand-new logo logo and purpose that aims to get South Africans to see beer differently by ‘dreaming big to create a future with more cheers’.
Leading the charge towards this new ‘future with more cheers’ is SAB CEO Richard Rivett-Carnac who said, “our big dream is to contribute meaningfully to the growth of the South African economy, creating jobs and building thriving communities”.
Rivett-Carnac said a clear and refined strategy has been put in place to help propel SAB to dream big and create a future with more cheers. This strategy is driven by three central pillars which are all underpinned by what Rivett-Carnac defines as SAB’s most important driver – responsibility. These pillars include leading the beer category responsibly, optimising the business, and both digitising and monetising the customer and consumer experience.
Leading and growing the beer category
To lead the beer category, Rivett-Carnac believes that SAB should continue to focus on the success of its core brands. He said this is a proven strategy given the success core brands like Carling Black Label experienced a 30% increase in revenue in the third quarter of the year.
“Additionally, our premium, super premium and Beyond Beer portfolios all delivered a double digit increase in volumes. Our core line of products has always been the heart and soul of our business and will no doubt help us lead the category in this new future.”
For him, leading the beer category means scaling innovations, elevating the brand’s Beyond Beer Category. Across the world, Ab-InBev’s Beyond Beer business grew its revenue by over 10% this quarter. In South Africa, strong contributors include the likes of Brutal Fruit and Flying Fish, which continued to deliver on double-digit volume growth.
Digitising and monetising
In this repositioning strategy, Rivett-Carnac said the power of dreaming big and creating a future with more cheers lies in communities, and in particular, the township economy.
“For us, it is the lliquor stores and taverns are a core part of the reason we do what we do, and we owe it to them to bring them into the economy that will not only help them grow but grow the country.”
With the knowledge that every retailer has a smartphone at hand, SAB intends to continue integrating innovative technology and mobility tools to help give retail businesses competitive advantage.
He said SAB’s ground-breaking digital ordering app BEES South Africa drives this integration and helps liquor retailers and tavern owners streamline their businesses and increase their profit margin.
Optimising SAB
“Through investing in organic growth, we will dynamically balance capital allocation to maximise value creation and reinvesting capital back into the local market,” said Rivett-Carnac.
Even with positive growth in earnings for the first three quarters of 2022, Rivett-Carnac said SAB was able to commit a R4.5bn towards the economic recovery and growth of the nation.
The R4.5bn will further ignite the economies of the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal as we have committed R650m to go into the expansion of SAB’s Prospecton Brewery in Durban and R270m will be committed to upgrading SAB’s Ibhayi Brewery in Gqeberha.
He said this investment alone will provide a R3.1bn additional tax revenue and generate 24, 000 jobs throughout the full value chain. This will additionally generate R4.4bn in additional GDP for the KwaZulu-Natal economy.
Rivett-Carnac said, “This all ramps up SAB’s total South African investment commitment to R4.5bn – adding impact to an industry that already contributes 1.3% of the national GDP. And our operations are only going to grow from here.”
Responsibility through partnerships
The abovementioned pillars of SAB’s new strategic repositioning are all underpinned by a strategic intention to intensify efforts to foster a more responsible nation. SAB intends to be more deliberate in transforming society and the trade into responsible champions of responsibility through the SAB Sharp platform and the Responsible Trading Programme.
Rivett-Carnac said SAB Sharp will enable the brewer to run interventions that can accelerate the curbing of irresponsible consumption. “This involves focused interventions aimed at encouraging South African communities to actively embrace responsible consumption by targeting drink driving, gender-based violence, binge and underage drinking.”
However, dreaming big to create a future with more cheers is something the SAB CEO admits the company cannot achieve alone. “From our relationship with our industry, to the bond we share with our government, to our shared purpose with numerous organisations – it is partnerships that we can truly drive our country towards this future.”
The repositioning allows SAB to communicate who SAB is, its contribution and its impact to the nation. “Today we stand together with our colleagues, our communities, and the entire country to declare a shared purpose. Together, we will meaningfully demonstrate how we can dream big and propel South Africa towards a future with more cheers,” concludes Rivett-Carnac
