Our History

1906:Salisbury (Rhodesia) Lager Beer Brewery

The Salisbury (Rhodesia) Lager Beer Brewery & Ice Factory was sold in April 1906 and Breweries Limited was registered, with 15 000 capital. The share subscription list of 13 500 £1 shares was filled in five days.

By August 1907 when lager beer was introduced, prices had dropped to seven shillings a dozen pints, brewery grains were advertised at one shilling a bucket as an alternative animal feed and by March “first-class ice” was sold at 1d, per pound with special quotations for large orders.

Between 1906 and 1909 the company’s business improved. There was a profit over the previous year and a 50% increase in turnover.

Mule wagon deliveries

The head brewer P. V. Samuels served for 40 years from 1908. He and his son Jim became luminaries of the brewery story for half a century.

During P.V. Samuel’s time his horse Molly, who was his friend and mode of transport to the office, would swim the river and turn up unannounced if he left her at home in favour of his bicycle.

There were 36 members of staff who produced 20 barrels per day. Water for the beer came from a shallow well. Two paxman loco-type boilers that used wood fuel generated electricity and an 8-tonne fridge in the cellars cooled the wooden fermenting and storage vessels. Half the output was delivered in casks by mule wagon to hotels and beer halls. The bottled beer was carbonated. because the refrigerators were not cold enough, and siphon-filtered into old whisky quart and pint bottles that had been discarded in Beira.

1910: Breweries Limited Sold

In 1910 when the Union of South Africa was formed in the British Commonwealth. three directors negotiated the sale of Breweries Limited to South African Breweries. Nearly all Rhodesian beer companies were merged under SAB Castle Breweries was registered.

Country’s capacity astonishing

South African Breweries transferred an entire brewing plant 1 000 miles from Kroonstad, South Africa, to Salisbury. When it was built, using 100 tons of steel for the six-storey building, the brewery was as good a model as any in the United Kingdom or Germany. In December 1911 The Rhodesia Herald reported that Castle Breweries was opened by the Marquis of Winchester, who said he hoped that the brewery would be self-supporting, not only in its barley requirements from Rhodesian farmers, but that it would be self-sustained by locally made crates and bottles.

^–The capacities of this country for the production of local industry, is quite astonishing.” he said. The injection of £60 000 by Mr C. Chidell of the London board indicated faith in the future of Rhodesia.

1912:Castle Ale

1946: Lager beer – next 55 years

1950:Sable Brewery in Bulawayo

On the advice of an English brewing consultant, the new Rhodesian Breweries Limited built the magnificent ultramodern Sable Brewery in Bulawayo in 1950. one of the largest commercial buildings in Central Africa. It adopted the sable head as the company trademark and introduced three new beers onto the market. Sable Lager. Milk Stout and Ace 13cer which were sold in the Rhodcsias. Nyasaland and Bechuanaland. Because the cost of the building and plant was higher than anticipated. a £100 000 loss was !worded in 1951 depleting the company’s working capital.
Iii idsorne profit in lows merger Consolidation was the key and soon the two breweries amalgamated. Rhodesian Breweries had made a considerable loss, had a declining market share and their new beers had not been very successful, but they had a fine new brewery. Castle Breweries was still making a handsome profit. After discussions, Rhodesian Breweries and South African Breweries boards agreed that SAB should sell its Southern Rhodesia. Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland business, excluding the hotels, to Rhodesian Breweries for £3 300 000. The Rhodesian Breweries board was reconstituted in 1951 and SAB, as the largest shareholder provided expert technical assistance and management, and supplemented the capital. The hotels were to be tied to a new company to be formed. At that stage Rhodesian Breweries head office was in one room at the Cameron Street plant. Between 1953 and 1957 an annual net profit of 10% was maintained. Production and profit rose to nearly nine million gallons a year between 1958 and 1960, not only because of increased demand. but also because of further expansion. The company took over Ohlsson’s Brewery and the marketing of Ohlsson’s Lion beer, enlarged Ndola Brewery, and installed new fermentation and storage tanks in Bulawayo. Production soon rose to 8,S million gallons a year in 1960 despite civic unrest in the capital city.

1958:More Beer in less time

In 1958, Jim Samuels. nick-named ‘Boss Jim’. became managing director of the executive management team comprising a technical director, financial adviser, and marketing director.

All brewing ceased fora day in Cameron Street in February 1962 when Sir Roy Wclensky. prime minister of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. opened the new Southerton Brewery, on a 30-acre site. The £2 000 000 brewery bottled 150 000 bottles a day and employed 480 staff. New offices at Southerton were completed in 1966.

Prior to the break up of Federation in 1962, Rhodesian Breweries and Rhodesian Anglo-American agreed to form a new company in Northern Rhodesia known as Northern Rhodesia Breweries Limited. Rhodesian Breweries sold all its assets to the new company.

The company’s advertising was innovative. For instance when a Viking aircraft of Central African Airways flew over Salisbury just before Christmas in 1963. the mayor, one of the 55 passengers aboard, pressed a button on board the aircraft and the largest neon spectacular sky sign in Central Africa blazed into light. As the mayor pressed the button a Pye high-frequency receiving station at the sign took up the signal from the aircraft and set in motion a series of switching mechanisms which illuminated the neon spectacular. In all 171 guests were taken aloft to view the sign that night.

Despite economic sanctions imposed in 1965 by the international community in response to Rhodesia’s unilateral declaration of independence from Britain and which adversely affected the country’s economy, Rhodesian Breweries’ net profit after tax increased from L107 000 to £917000. Taking a broad view of its role in the country’s

development the company started implementing extensive diversification plans that were to transform it into a major conglomerate involved in alcoholic and soft drinks, foodstuffs. hotels and tourism, with beer as the major concern. Beer exports increased to Malawi and other neighbouring countries while exports to Zambia and South Africa ceased. Several fresh ideas excited the public in the late 1960s. Draught beer dispensers were introduced at outlets in Salisbury, pop-top cans, and canned water using the same process as canned beer, was produced for the security forces. When the self-contained Beer Division, the successor to National Breweries was formed in 1969, production and marketing were centralised to cut costs. In 1967 SAB offered a substantial number of shares in Rhodesian Breweries.

1970 : Carling Black Label Launched. Salisbury’s biggest private party ever

The international Carling Black Label was introduced in 1970 and was launched at the biggest private party ever held in Salisbury. The beer keg and the twist-off crown were launched. Lion Ale was withdrawn due to lack of demand: Zimbabwe Beer was introduced, but because of disappointing sales it was withdrawn in 1980.

Simultaneously, to meet the increased demand, there wcrc major extensions to brewing facilities in Salisbury and Bulawayo.

Eighteen years later a shortage of beer bottles over the Christmas season forced National Breweries to use the 340 nil Carling Black Label bottles for Castle Pilsncr. which was normally sold in 375 ml containers. This was a temporary change for llarare only and was reviewed when the bottle rotation returned to normal after the busy festive season.

Canichni Sitcct

In 1971 the remaining fermentation and storage facilities at the Cameron Street brewery were closed down. Operating since 1898 and taken over by the group in 1910, the building. on a six-acre industrial and commercial site, was sold for $875 000 to the Olympic Finance and Trading Corporation of Central Africa in 1972 and was soon demolished.

But first the brewery was slowly stripped – the most spectacular deal was the sale of the towering R0-foot smokestack for S100. the sale went through although the harassed buyer tried to withdraw the sale after he was quoted S2 R00 for dismantling the smoke stack! Sixteen of the giant storage tanks were sold to African Distillers for S20 each: seven tanks were sold to a market gardener for water storage; scrap metal dealers bought the piping and machinery.

Always regarded as a blue chip share on the Rhodesian Stock Exchange. the company decided to invest outside the beer industry in the 1970s. The name Rhodesian Breweries described only one aspect of the company business. From the basic activity of brewing lager-type beer it managed a spread of investments, mainly consumer goods and tourist hotels.

Jim Samuels. Rhodesian Breweries chairman, said in 1972: ^–As far back as the early 60s it was apparent that we had to become less reliant on the single activity of brewing lager been. As the size of our brewing operations increased, so cash resources were accumulating, and further avenues of profitability had to be created to maintain the level of returns required by our shareholders.

“Amid the continuing political and economic pressures and uncenainties in Rhodesia. the company has bubbled to the brim of business success.”
SABReview

1978: Southern-1n Brewery, Salisbury

“Crises, whether economic or political, lead to higher demands for the brewers’ product. It is the group’s forward planning policy that has maintained its strength in difficult circumstances. This has had three elements – to maintain full employment. complete major projects designed to reduce reliance on imports and to increase liquidity and concentrate on traditional fields of investment. It is not marking time waiting for the political situation to clear -the group is planning for the post-settlement era.” The Rhodesia Herald October 1977.

April 1978. in line with political changes that lead to the country’s Ina m e changing to Rhodesia-Zimbabwe, the Cirri’s changed its name to Delta Corporation Limited. The company managed a portfolio of investments including beer. National Breweries was established as a separate corporate entity and took over the operations of the fodder beer division.

An important event was the new brewhouse, completed in 1979 at Southenon, with the most modern locally built equipment. In 1980 when Zimbabwe attained its independence and international recognition, the company attended to both local and international development. Locally it helped reconstruct the outlets in the rural areas so beer sales and local business could resume. Internationally, an associated management company was established in Europe to control various brewery activities in Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland.

During the 1980s government reviewed the legislation governing price control and implemented further price freezes that decreased profitability of the breweries. There was a brewer’s price increase of 8,5% in 1980 but later applications were only granted after many months. A significant trend was the high growth rate of the rural market where 141 outlets were opened. High gravity brewing and more efficient yeast strains improved production and reduced costs in 1983.

1979: Delta Engineering Training Centre
was opened

The Delta Technical Division was formed in 1980 to provide technical, planning and research and development facilities for all the group companies. In addition a comprehensive apprentice training school with specialised facilities, was built at Southenon brewery. It trained artisans for the Salisbury and Bulawayo breweries and worked closely with the Polytechnic.

In early 1984, Delta Corporation launched its assistance project for the !lethal Collective Fanning Co-op in Headlands by providing S86 000 for the purchase of implements and irrigation equipment. National Breweries gives financial planning advice, technical training and marketing back-up to the barley project as, apart from the winter barley source, a stable business environment is created in the rural area.

In 1986 Delta Corporation started projects to improve the quality of lift in the rural areas, by providing training for retailers and by supporting the co-operative movement. A trade-training department conducted seminars on retail business techniques. The network of distribution franchises was increased through local agents, and many new businesses established in the rural areas. To improve distribution in the rural areas the transport fleet was built up and the group was involved in establishing rural depots for all group products and services.

Research should probe

Regard for the customer, reasoned marketing procedures, and scientific analysis and research, are the three pillars on which National Breweries built their most advanced manufacturing and selling structures. The company believes research should probe beyond present trends and a generation ahead and that worldwide market forces should be analysed. Preferences are monitored, product ranges adapted to meet consumer needs and to ensure that installed brewery capacity is fully utilised.