On Monday 28 November, the South African Breweries (SAB) hosted KwaZulu-Natal Premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube at its Prospecton Brewery in Durban.
The tour was led by SAB CEO Richard Rivett-Carnac and unpacked the impact of SAB’s R825-million investment into the Prospecton Brewery, which was pledged at the South African Investment Conference in March this year.
The Prospecton Brewery expansion will include a new ‘Flavoured Alcohol Beverage Blending Plant’, which will bring with it direct full-time employment for 56 people with new skills development drives aimed at upskilling workers on new processes.
As a brewery that was hit hard by the 2021 July unrest and the floods in April 2022, Rivett-Carnac says SAB believes in the enormous potential this operation can play for the business and for the province.
“We have always been excited by the potential that lies before us as we invest in the potential and capability of our operations,” says Rivett-Carnac. “Prospecton Brewery has always been a staple in the SAB success story and this investment will go a long way to elevate to new levels of economic success.”
Given the need for more ESG-related advancements and economic efficiencies, the Premier and MEC were pleased to discover that the investment also seeks to elevate the brewery’s efforts to incorporate more returnable packaging with more optimised production, innovation, maintenance, IT, and quality.
In his presentation, Rivett-Carnac assured the delegates that this project will help sustain domestic production capacity at SAB while promoting revenue generation through sourcing of local good and services.
“We anticipate this expansion to further increase demand for raw materials, labour, utilities and equipment within the brewery, thus stimulating economic activity in our country, and in the province,” says Rivett-Carnac.
All-in-all Rivett-Carnac says this investment is testimony to the impact that SAB continues to deliver in the KwaZulu-Natal economy. SAB employs 572 workers in the province of which approximately half work at the Prospecton Brewery. In total, SAB’s operations support over 17,000 jobs in province, equivalent to around 0.7% of provincial employment. With around 4860 retailers and 400 suppliers across the province, Rivett-Carnac believes SAB’s direct economic impact in the province is exponential.
This investment coincides with a further R270m the company invested into its Ibhayi Brewery in the Eastern Cape, which totalled SAB’s total South African investment commitment to R4.5bn – adding impact to an industry that already contributes R43bn in tax and accounts for 1 in 66 jobs in the country.
“These investments help us uplift the province and the communities that we serve. By investing in our Brewery we can increase our capacity and increase our tax contribution as well as our workforce. This is how we dream big to create a future with more cheers,” concludes Rivett-Carnac.
