SABMILLER

SABMiller - Company Overview



SABMiller

Overview of the Organization

SABMiller is a public limited company, which is listed in London Stock Exchange and Johannesburg Stock Exchange. Apart from that the company is also a part of the FTSE 100 Index. SABMiller is a global bottling and brewing company with its headquarters in London, United Kingdom. The company is the world's second-largest in the brewing industry in terms of its revenues (www.sablimited.co, 2011).

On an average, SABMiller sells 21 billion litres of lager annually. The origins of the company can be traced back to the year 1895 when it was established by the name of South African Breweries (SAB) in South Africa. Over time, SABMiller evolved and in 1898 launched its first brand Castle Lager. SABMiller went on expanding and in 1911 entered the local barley industry by becoming a supplier of the imported seeds free of charge, and also signed contracts to buy the crops at the market rates (www.360.datamonitor.com, 2011).

In 1925, SABMiller acquired a share in Schweppes carbonated soft drinks. Ten years down the lane, the company setup widespread hop fields in a joint venture with Ohlsson's. SABMiller acquired a number of breweries, pubs, and small hotels in the early 1950s. During the 1960s, the company expanded further in the liquor industry through the acquisition of Stellenbosch Farmers' Winery (www.sablimited.co, 2011).

Followed by that in 1992, SABMiller acquired Plate Glass group, which was the leading manufacturer and distributor of glass and board products. Then SABMiller extended its reach into the beer markets of Tanzania, Angola, and Mozambique in 1995 after acquiring the second largest brewery in China. SABMiller entered new markets of Poland and Romania in the later 1990s (www.360.datamonitor.com, 2011). The turning point, however, for the company came when SAB underwent M&A with America's second largest brewer the Miller Brewing Company in the year 2002.

The new company came to be called as SABMiller. The company further underwent expansion of its international operations in the early 2003 with the acquisition of 29.6% share in the Harbin Brewery Group, a Chinese brewer from the China Enterprise Development Fund (CEDF). In the next year, SABMiller undertook two joint ventures with its pan-African partner, Castel Group. Following that, China Resources Breweries, an associate of SABMiller invested $82.2 millions in the construction of a new brewery in the city of Dongguan, in China (www.360.datamonitor.com, 2011).

The year 2008 proved to be a stepping stone for the company's growth and ...