The South African Breweries Ltd operates like a beverage. The company manufactures and distributes beer and other alcoholic beverages to retail outlets. South African Breweries serves customers in South Africa. SAB places significant emphasis on diversity and strives to achieve its goal of increasing female representation in South Africa.
Various German interests established breweries in Botswana and Swaziland in a failed attempt to gain a foothold in South Africa. An example of this was National Sorghum Breweries (NSB), a black business consortium founded in 1990 and the first new player in the beer industry in more than 10 years. South African Breweries Limited (SAB) is a holding company whose main line of business is brewing beer. The Spanish Civil War and growing political tensions in Europe in the mid-and late 1930s caused an interruption in the supply of cork to South Africa.
Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa's most prominent black capitalist and former militant trade unionist, took office as interim president of SAB. A year later, the company bought its two main competitors, Ohlsson's and Chandlers Union Breweries, which were struggling with falling beer demand, and the group was renamed South African Breweries. The transaction, which had an implicit value of approximately 1.9 billion rands, meant that the empowerment group Tsogo Investments acquired control of Southern Sun Hotels, then the largest hotel group in Southern Africa, as well as Tsogo Sun, a leading casino operator in South Africa. Business in Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania for Asahi Breweries Group Holdings, Ltd.
Another economic depression hit South Africa after World War I, but the steady growth in demand for beer reduced many of the detrimental effects of the depression. While the new company controlled 90 percent of the beer market in South Africa, the outdated production facilities reduced profit margins. In 1996, the company gained joint control of two of the largest breweries in Poland, Lech Brewery and Tyskie Brewery, as well as three breweries in Romania and one in Slovakia. Dreher Premium Lager was launched in South Africa that same year and, in recent years, the company has made a number of innovations in the categories of spirit drink coolers and apple beer.
Apartheid, introduced by the South African government in 1948, made it illegal to sell alcoholic beverages to the black population and their consumption by them. Several international hotel chains decided to enter South Africa after the lifting of economic sanctions.
