The oldest modern mineral water, Ambo Mineral Water, a.k.a. Ambo Tsebel, was bought jointly by the UK-based multinational brewer, SABMiller PLC, and SouthWest Development (SWD), will join the Coca Cola family as SABMiller.
The Coca Cola Company and Coca Cola Sabco announced their intention to form a new company called Coca-Cola Beverages Africa.
The new business is said to be the biggest bottler of soft drinks and non-alcoholic beverages in Africa and the 10th largest in the world, with an annual revenue of USD 2.9 billion. As part of the deal, SABMiller, which is already a significant bottler of Coca Cola products across Africa, will sell its Appletiser soft drinks brands to the Coca Cola Company to avoid competition between the two companies. Coca Cola will also acquire or be licensed rights to another 19 non-alcoholic drinks owned by SABMiller in Africa and Latin America for around USD 260 million.
SABMiller and its local partner will control the operations and bottling of Coca Cola in the Ethiopian market as a majority shareholder.
Currently, there are more than 30 Coca Cola bottlers in Africa alone and there has already been a wave of consolidation among bottling companies in other countries such as Spain and Japan. Coca Cola Sabco is the second biggest bottler of the product in South Africa and also has operations in other African countries such as Ethiopia and Kenya.
On Thursday, SABMiller PLC and Coca Cola Co. have announced that they will combine soft drinks bottling operations in southern and eastern Africa including in Ethiopia, in a deal that reinforces the UK-based brewer’s growing interest in non-alcoholic beverages.
According to information obtained from SAB and Coke, a new company, Coca Cola Beverages Africa, will serve 12 countries and supply 40 percent of all Coca Cola volumes in Africa.
The two companies also said that SAB and Coke will hold 57 percent and 11.3 percent of the new business respectively while Gutsche Family Investments will own the remaining 31.7 percent.
Ambo Mineral Water has been bottled and marketed since 1930 and is considered the market leader in Ethiopia. The source of Ambo Mineral Water is a thermo-mineral spring, which is rich in natural calcium, magnesium, potassium, bicarbonates and carbon dioxide.
The water originates in a volcanic fissure which then percolates through mountainous terrain, eventually being tapped at the springs in Ambo Senkele, 130 km from Addis Ababa.
It is popularly consumed during and after meals as a digestive, also popularly consumed as a thirst quenching ‘soft drink’ or as a discerning mixer, specifically with whisky and other spirits.
Recently, its product and pack range has been extended to include convenience packaging in plastic bottles, as well as new products, Ambo Lite (lower carbonation and mineralization) and ‘Ambo flavored water’ (Orange, Apple, Pineapple, Lemon-lime).etc.
Coca-Cola was first bottled in Addis Ababa in 1959 by the Ethiopian Bottling Share Company, which later opened a second branch in Dire Dawa in 1965. The two plants were nationalized in 1975 and ran as public companies until 1996 when they were bought by local entrepreneurs. Just prior to this, in 1995, Coca Cola Sabco bought shares in the business and, in 1999, signed a joint venture agreement with the plants. In 2001, Coca Cola Sabco increased its shares to 61 percent and the company changed its name to the East African Bottling Share Company (EABSC). Currently, it produces and bottles a range of beverages including Fanta group, Coca Cola, Sprite, Schweppes, Coke Light and Dasani Bottled Water.
[TheReporterEthiopia]