NBL revenue increases by 10.6% on the back of beer volumes sent to South Africa
Namibia Breweries Limited (NBL) revenue increased by 10.6% to N$1 533 billion mainly due to a 99.9% growth in production volumes sent to South Africa and royalty income growth from Heineken South Africa.
The South African beer volumes returned to pre-COVID levels, with lively demand for Windhoek and Heineken in the premium segment, taking the production volumes to South Africa up by 99.9%.
In Namibia, however, beer volumes declined by 7.3% due to COVID-19 waves, which created a restricted trading environment during the period July/August 2021, while significant swings in volume demand were experienced towards the end of 2021. Windhoek Draught remained the dominant brand in the local market, showing continued demand and growth while Heineken delivered good growth in the Namibian premium beer segment.
“Beer volumes in Namibia muted. 2022 beer volumes increased by 9.2% against 2021 with a 4.0% growth in operating profit. This is mainly attributed to our continued drive for cost-effective sourcing, overall business cost management, flexible route-to-market and ongoing and innovative sales and consumer engagement initiatives which ensured resilient and improved earnings under continuous challenging market conditions. Our Windhoek Draught brand has shown exceptional growth within Namibia’s mainstream beer category,” said NBL Managing Director, Marco Wenk.
Wenk said that although COVID-19 impacted their export markets, favourable exchange rates allowed them to absorb this impact. Tanzania remains NBL’s biggest export market, although as with most export markets, sales were challenged by logistical hurdles.
