Brarudi S.A., also known as by its French name Brasseries et Limonaderies du Burundi, is the largest

brewer Brewing is the production of beer by steeping a starch source (commonly cereal grains, the most popular of which is barley) in water and fermenting the resulting sweet liquid with yeast. It may be done in a brewery by a commercial brewer, ...

and soft beverage company in the

Republic of Burundi Burundi, officially the Republic of Burundi, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is located in the Great Rift Valley at the junction between the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa, with a population of over 14 million peop ...

History

The history of Brarudi goes back to 1955, when the management of the breweries of the

Belgian Congo The Belgian Congo (, ; ) was a Belgian colonial empire, Belgian colony in Central Africa from 1908 until independence in 1960 and became the Republic of the Congo (Léopoldville). The former colony adopted its present name, the Democratic Repu ...

, then under the management of Brasseries de Leopoldville (now

Bralima Brewery Brasseries, Limonaderies et Malteries SARL (Bralima), established in 1923 as the Brasserie de Léopoldville, is a brewing company in the Democratic Republic of the Congo which operates six breweries. It has been owned by Heineken International s ...

), decided to build a brewery in the Eastern region to server

Ruanda-Urundi Ruanda-Urundi (), later Rwanda-Burundi, was a geopolitical entity, once part of German East Africa, that was occupied by troops from the Belgian Congo during the East African campaign in World War I and was administered by Belgium under milit ...

and Eastern Congo. The city of Usumbura (now

Bujumbura Bujumbura (; ), formerly Usumbura, is the economic capital, largest city and main port of Burundi. It ships most of the country's chief export, coffee, as well as cotton and tin ore. Bujumbura was formerly the country's political capital. In la ...

), on the northern shores of

Lake Tanganyika Lake Tanganyika ( ; ) is an African Great Lakes, African Great Lake. It is the world's List of lakes by volume, second-largest freshwater lake by volume and the List of lakes by depth, second deepest, in both cases after Lake Baikal in Siberia. ...

, was selected to house the new brewery, Brasserie du Rwanda-Urundi. The brewery became operational on December 23, 1955 and began producing Primus Beer. In November 1957, Bralima started construction on a second brewery in

Gisenyi Gisenyi, historically rendered as Kisenyi, is the second largest city in Rwanda, located in the Rubavu district in Rwanda's Western Province. Gisenyi is contiguous with Goma as it was formerly also part of now Democratic Republic of the Congo, t ...

on the northern shores of

Lake Kivu Lake Kivu is one of the African Great Lakes. It lies on the border between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda, and is in the Albertine Rift, the western branch of the East African Rift. Lake Kivu empties into the Ruzizi River, which ...

under the name Brasseries et Limonaderies du Rwanda. Upon independence, Bralima was incorporated in Congo Léopoldville, Brarudi in Burundi and Bralirwa in Rwanda. In 1966, Brarudi diversified into the production of soft drinks. This was through the brewer's partnership with

the Coca-Cola Company The Coca-Cola Company is an American multinational corporation founded in 1892. It manufactures, sells and markets soft drinks including Coca-Cola, other non-alcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups, and alcoholic beverages. Its stock is lis ...

, making it a bottler for Coca-Cola products. A beverage plant was opened in

Gitega Gitega (), formerly Kitega, is the political capital of Burundi. Located in the centre of the country, in the Burundian central plateau roughly east of Bujumbura, the largest city and former political capital, Gitega is the country's fourth la ...

for this purpose. In 1975, the

Government of Burundi The Council of Ministers of Burundi are the senior level of the executive branch of Burundi and consists of the Prime Minister of Burundi and various Ministers. The 2018 constitution, which enshrines ethnically based power-sharing, requires that ...

acquired 40% control of Brarudi while

Banque Bruxelles Lambert Bank Brussels Lambert (BBL, ) was a prominent Belgian bank that was created in 1975 through the merger of Banque de Bruxelles and Banque Lambert, and was eventually acquired in 1998 by ING Group; however the name survived as part of Groupe Bruxe ...

(BBL) retained its 60% shareholding. BBL exited Brarudi in 1982 through selling its 60% stake to

Heineken Heineken Lager Beer (), or simply Heineken (), is a Dutch pale lager beer with 5% alcohol by volume produced by the Dutch brewing company Heineken N.V. Heineken beer is sold in a green bottle with a red star. History On 15 February 1864, ...

, a

Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...

brewing conglomerate. This made Brarudi a subsidiary of Heineken. The

Moso Sugar Company SOSUMO () is a company that grows and refines sugar in Burundi. Location The company operates in the Rutana Province in the southeast of Burundi. This is in the Moso natural region of Burundi. The area is fed by the Muyovozi River, Mutsindozi Riv ...

(SOSUMO) was created on 13 July 1982 as a private law mixed economy company (SARL). The State of Burundi held 21,250 shares, and 100 shares each were held by Brarudi and the Société Burundaise de Financement (SBF).

Ownership

The shares of

stock Stocks (also capital stock, or sometimes interchangeably, shares) consist of all the Share (finance), shares by which ownership of a corporation or company is divided. A single share of the stock means fractional ownership of the corporatio ...

of the company are privately held. The ownership of the company stock is as depicted in the table below:

Brands

The brands manufactured by Brarudi include the following.

Beers

Soft drinks

References

Sources

External links

Bralirwa homepage

Heineken homepage
{{Economy of Burundi Heineken brands Breweries of Africa Drink companies of Burundi Food and drink companies established in 1955 1955 establishments in Ruanda-Urundi Coca-Cola bottlers