Southern Sudan Beverages Limited was a

brewery A brewery or brewing company is a business that makes and sells beer. The place at which beer is commercially made is either called a brewery or a beerhouse, where distinct sets of brewing equipment are called plant. The commercial brewing of bee ...

based in South Sudan and previously owned by

ABInBev Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV, commonly known as AB InBev, is an American-Belgian multinational drink and brewing company based in Leuven, Belgium. AB InBev has a global functional management office in New York City, and regional headquarters in ...

. The company closed operations in 2016.

History

SABMiller has an investment in the company while it was within the jurisdiction of Sudan. It built a ~£32 million factory in

Juba Juba () is the capital and largest city of South Sudan. The city is situated on the White Nile and also serves as the capital of the Central Equatoria State. It is the world's newest capital city to be elevated as such, and had a population ...

, making it the first manufacturing facility in the country and came despite competition from imported beers from Kenya and Uganda. The initial plans to start a brewery had begun in 2006 before the launch in 2009. The company's initial challenges included logistics as material to build the first factory needed to be driven into the country from

Mombasa Mombasa ( ; ) is a coastal city in southeastern Kenya along the Indian Ocean. It was the first capital of the British East Africa, before Nairobi was elevated to capital city status. It now serves as the capital of Mombasa County. The town is ...

, Kenya including two second hand brewery machines from Malta and Bulgaria and a power plant needed to be built, while the only ingredient of

beer Beer is one of the oldest and the most widely consumed type of alcoholic drink in the world, and the third most popular drink overall after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches, mainly derived from ce ...

available was local water from the

Nile The Nile, , Bohairic , lg, Kiira , Nobiin: Áman Dawū is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa and has historically been considered the longest ...

and the over 250 workers who had mostly never been employed before needed to be trained from scratch. The malted barley, hops and yeast are imported but there were plans to work with local farmers to start brewing with cassava. The factory has a capacity to produce 180,000hl of clear beer and 60,000hl of carbonated soft drinks annually. The flagship White Bull's colours are yellow, green and white and are served in heavy brown bottles. It is also illegally available in

Khartoum Khartoum or Khartum ( ; ar, الخرطوم, Al-Khurṭūm, din, Kaartuɔ̈m) is the capital of Sudan. With a population of 5,274,321, its metropolitan area is the largest in Sudan. It is located at the confluence of the White Nile, flowing n ...

, Sudan. Production started in May 2009. Ian Alsworth-Elvey is the inaugural

managing director A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

of the company. A new Managing Director, Carlos Gomes was appointed to take over the business in March 2015. This was, however, not the first attempt to build a brewery in the country after Belgium's SYBETRA built the White Nile Brewery in Wau in 1983, but the Sudanese government did not license the project due to sharia law.

Brands

The beer brands that were manufactured are ''White Bull'', Nile Special (brewed primarily in Jinja, Uganda but also at the South Sudan brewery) and Club Pilsner

pale lager Pale lager is a very pale-to- golden-colored lager beer with a well- attenuated body and a varying degree of noble hop bitterness. The brewing process for this beer developed in the mid-19th century, when Gabriel Sedlmayr took pale ale brew ...

beer. The Company also produces soft drinks such as Club Cola, Club Berry, Club Lemmon, Club Pineapple, Club Orange, and Club Apple . In addition to soft dinks and beer, the Company also produces spirits such as Konyagi Gin, Vladimir Vodka, Regency Whisky and Valeur Brandy.

White Bull Lager

''Southern Sudan Beverages Ltd.'' announced on May 6, 2009; that the company had produced its first locally produced beer in

South Sudan South Sudan (; din, Paguot Thudän), officially the Republic of South Sudan ( din, Paankɔc Cuëny Thudän), is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered by Ethiopia, Sudan, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the ...

, called ''White Bull Lager'' with an alcohol content level of 4.2%. The beer has been brewing in the

brewing facility, which SSBL invested US$37 million in 2009 that has an initial annual capacity of 180000hl. The White Bull name comes from the distinctive cattle in the country which, according to the company, "is an important culturally treasured symbol status that the team at SSBL respects and admires." Since the brands inception, ''WB'' is considered to be the national beer of South Sudan. The brewery planned to produce 35 million litres a year. Bulk purchases are sold at Sudanese pounds per crate except for volume buyers — with purchases of 225 crates or more — who will pay about UK£12, while the minimum order is 45 crates. By May 11, 2010 it was announced White Bull had captured two-thirds of the mainstream beer market, selling 2.5m bottles a month, at 70p each. On January 14, 2016, the company had announced it would be closing its brewing operations in South Sudan by mid-February due to the foreign-currency shortage restricting its ability to import raw materials.

References

External links

Official SABMiller site for White Bull
{{SABMiller Breweries of Africa SABMiller Companies based in Juba Food and drink companies established in 2009 2009 establishments in South Sudan Companies of South Sudan