1900 - 1999

1900-1999

1999

• SAB moves its primary listing back to London, raising £300 million in international markets. The strategy is to develop and expand its international beer and other beverage operations and to invest in the rapidly-growing gaming industry in South Africa. SAB is a FTSE 100 stock.

• SAB acquires controlling interest in Pilsner Urquell and Radegast, the leading brewers in the Czech Republic.

• Kompania Piwowarska S.A. formed following the merger of Lech Browary Wielkopolski S.A. in Poznan and Browary Tyskie Górny Slask S.A. in Tyche.

1998

• First corporate citizenship review published, reflecting SAB's real commitment to social responsibility to all stakeholders in all markets.

• SAB acquires the partially completed Kaluga Brewery, 112 miles southwest of Moscow.

1997

• Recognising the need to enhance long-term shareholder value, SAB returns to its core beverage business, locally and internationally, selling off or closing non-core operations.

• SAB acquires a majority interest in Pivovar Saris in Slovakia.

1996

• International equity raising of R2 billion strongly supported, a tribute to SAB's premier status. Market capitalisation of R48 billion makes SAB the largest industrial group in the country and one of the world's top brewing-based organisations.

• Browary Tyskie Górny Slask SA is purchased.

• SAB enters the Romanian market with the purchase of the Vultural, Ursus and Pitber breweries.

1995

• State President Nelson Mandela opens SAB's Centenary Centre in the cultural precinct of Johannesburg. (SAB celebrates 100 years with a share price of R100, market capitalisation of R30 billion and a record R10 billion in added value for the South African economy.)

• SAB acquires a majority stake in LECH Brewery (Poznan, Poland).

1994

• First fully democratic election held in South Africa and a five-year government of national unity takes office.

• SAB invited to revitalise the beer industry in Tanzania – a joint venture with that country's government – and to re-enter beer markets of Zambia, Mozambique and, later, Angola.

• Joint control of the second-largest brewery in mainland China negotiated with China Resources, a privatisation arm of the government of the People's Republic of China.

1993

• Hungary's largest brewery, Dreher, acquired in beachhead move into central Europe.

1992

• Acquisition of control of Plate Glass group, leading manufacturer and distributor of glass and board products, with established automotive service operations on three continents, rounds off portfolio of selected manufacturing interests.

1990

• Prospect of a new era of racial harmony for South Africa ushered in with unbanning of opposition political parties and release of political prisoners. Massive megabrewery investment programme starts at Alrode, Prospecton and Newlands. Domestic beer volumes exceed 20 million hectolitres per year for the first time).

1989

• Da Gama Textiles Company, one of the largest textile manufacturers in South Africa, joins the SAB fold.

1988

• US beverage involvement reluctantly terminated, but resultant funds redeployed into brewing industry in the Canary Islands and the fruit juice industry in the UK.

1987

• The leading safety match manufacturer in Africa, Lion Match Company, acquired from disinvesting international investor.

1986

• Joint venture with Ceres Fruit Juices establishes dominant juice business.

1985

• South Africa's short-term banking facilities are suddenly called up, trade and cultural sanctions and boycotts are imposed, and the country becomes almost totally isolated. SAB activates complex defensive investment structures abroad – the Westgate International group makes its debut in Holland and the UK. (When other companies disinvested, SAB consistently ploughed investment into resources . . . when others lost faith, we publicly proclaimed our confidence in the future of South Africa and its people.)

1984

• Southern Sun awarded the Holiday Inns franchise – restructures its hotel interests, spinning off its Sun International casino resort activities.

1983

• As Zimbabwe's independence takes root, SAB forced to decrease interest in Delta Corporation to 25%. First investment away from the southern African subcontinent through beverages in the USA – sparkling and still beverages, and later, a niche beer, Rolling Rock (Record earnings of R200 million boosts market capitalisation to R2 billion.)

1982

• More aggressive move into retail clothing and accessories signalled by acquisition of Edgars fashion group.
• First step towards a megabrewery (annual capacity of over 6 million hectolitres by 1986) commissioned at Rosslyn, outside Pretoria.
• Control of Appletiser sold to SAB by Coca-Cola.

1981

• Completes its southern African beer involvement by securing a controlling interest in Lesotho Brewing Company and Maluti Mountain Brewery.
• The gold price soars to nearly US$1,000 per ounce, but collapses back to US$500.
• SAB makes its first diversified consumer goods acquisition since 1974 – the Scotts Stores retail apparel group.

1980

• Expands into Botswana by acquiring, at the request of its government, a controlling interest in Kgalagadi Breweries from an unsuccessful German brewing group.

1979

• South African liquor industry comprehensively restructured; SAB agrees to purchase the beer interests of the Rembrandt Group – giving it virtually 99% of the market. SAB requested to realign its investment in wines and spirits to 30% of Stellenbosch Farmers' Winery and 30% of Distillers Corporation, while disposing of its retail liquor outlets.
• SAB moves into fruit juices, taking up a 49% interest in Appletiser from its Italian founder.

1978

• Ground broken on Pilanesberg Casino Resort Project (Sun City).
• Rhodesian interests consolidated into Delta Corporation.
• SAB publishes a code of non-discriminatory employment – a first in the country.

1977

• Food, hot beverage and the remaining general property interests sold off to refine SAB's investment focus.
• Pepsi franchise replaced with Coca-Cola.

1976

• Separate listing made of Amalgamated Retail to handle the retailing interests of Associated Furniture Company and Shoecorp.
• SAB acquires Swaziland Breweries.
• Riots in Soweto and Cape Town signal serious protest against South Africa's apartheid system.

1975

• The stock market, becoming more selective in a period of economic slowdown, signals confusion with SAB's investment focus as the share price sinks to a low of 77 cents.
• Total reappraisal of SAB Group mission and structures commissioned, with corporate strategy input from international management consultants.
• SFW once more becomes a wholly-owned subsidiary.
• SAB acquires failed competitors, Whitbreads and Old Dutch.

1974

• South Africa excluded from the general assembly of the United Nations.
• Diversification into mass market retailing begins with the acquisition of OK Bazaars.
• Groovy Beverages sets up joint venture with Schweppes and then acquires bottling business of Pepsi-Cola.
• A small taste change in Castle Lager impressed the brewers, but nearly cost the brand its life – the mistake was quickly reversed, hammering home the lesson that the brand does not belong to the brewer nor to the marketer, it belongs to the consumer.

1973

• SAB establishes breweries in Botswana and Angola.
• Barsab dismantled and SAB assumes control of its furniture and footware interests (Afcol and Shoecorp).

1972

• South African market sees the entrance of a new, but short-lived local competitor – Luyt Breweries – salvaged and revitalised within a year by the Rembrandt Group as Intercontinental Breweries. (The so-called "beer wars" raged on for some seven years, generating unprecedented interest in beer and stimulating marketing sophistication and innovation never seen before.)

1970

• Stellenbosch Wine Trust acquires Sedgwick Tayler (brandies, gins and cane spirits).
• SAB opens South Africa's first sparkling beverage canning plant and launches the Groovy range to a receptive market.
• SAB celebrates its 75th year by becoming fully incorporated in South Africa, with 80% of its shareholders South African – reinforcing its South African identity.

1969

• In exchange for its joint investment with Anglo American in the Carlton Centre project and other property interests, SAB acquires a 38% share in and management responsibility for Retco Limited, the largest property-owning and development company in the country.
• Group's hotels and licenced house interests rationalised with the launch of Southern Sun Hotels.

1967

• Through a newly-formed subsidiary, Food Corporation, SAB expands into the food sector, taking control of Hind Brothers and International Foods, and investing in tea and coffee through J Lyons and Glenton and Mitchell.(From record earnings of R7 million in 1966, attributable earnings, damaged by excessive excise duties, drop back to R6 million. An uninterrupted earnings growth track starts from 1968 and continues right up to the centenary year in 1995.)

1966

• Brewing of Carling Black Label begins under licence from the Carling Brewing Company of Cleveland, Ohio.
• Exorbitant excise duty increases once more devastate the beer industry, bringing SAB to a turning point in its history.
• SFW and Monis Wineries (wines, brandies and liqueurs) merged into Stellenbosch Wine Trust, but SAB compelled to reduce its holding to 34%.
• SAB positions itself to redeploy surplus investment funds and to diversify its activities further through the formation of Barsab Investment Trust – a joint venture between SAB and Thos Barlow & Sons for acquisitions outside their mainstream activities, within the South African industrial sector.

1965

• SAB reaches agreement with Amstel Brouwerij of Amsterdam to produce Amstel locally.
• Minority investment taken up in South West Breweries.

1964

• SAB granted licence to brew Guinness in South Africa - the first company outside Ireland accorded this right.
• Grading of South African hotels commences. 

1963

• Focused marketing activities start to remedy a decade-long static situation in beer consumption. SAB establishes a corporate identity for itself with its new head office on Braamfontein Ridge on the site of Ohlsson's 1902 Thoma brewery. (Number 2 Jan Smuts Avenue on Braamfontein Ridge – a mystical subcontinental watershed point. Hydrologers maintain that when a downpour occurs there, half the rainwater runs down to the Atlantic Ocean while the other half eventually finds its way to the Indian Ocean.)

1962

• Prohibition lifted on consumption of liquor by black South Africans, opening the way for national availability of more responsible liquor alternatives. (Prohibition bred the usual "moonshine magic" – a flourishing illicit industry where homemade "brews" from backyard shebeens delivered some of the most hideous concoctions history has known: names like stuka, mampuru and skokiaan took their ignoble place in South African history.)

1961

• After five years of growth in beer consumption, albeit marginal, national volumes had only just reached 800 000 hectolitres.
• Following a nationwide referendum, South Africa withdraws from the Commonwealth and becomes an independent republic.

1960

• SAB extends its involvement in the liquor industry by acquiring control of Stellenbosch Farmers' Winery. Research funds are allocated for study of viticulture to stimulate the development of more varieties of grape.
• Union's 50th Jubilee celebrations shortlived – serious interracial confrontation erupts at Sharpeville, Vereeniging.

1956

• SAB responds by buying out the Ohlsson's and Chandlers Union Breweries groups for some £400 000, enabling extensive rationalisation of production and distribution facilities and eliminating much wasteful competition. Capital of the new group increased to £6.25 million. (The irony of the double acquisition was that it was driven by SAB, with the smallest asset base, but with the vision and appetite which catapulted it overnight into a virtually unassailable position in the market.)

1955

• Discriminatory excise duty structures favour spirits and prejudice beer, making it the most heavily taxed beverage in South Africa.

1954

• SAB subsidiary Union Glass merges with Consolidated Glassworks (sold off in 1960 to Anglovaal Industries).

1953

• Work begins on new Castle Brewery site in Isando, east of Johannesburg – the largest brewhouse in Africa and one of the most modern in the world.

1952

• Rhodesian brewing activity spreads to Bulawayo.

1951

• Rhobrew invests in a new brewery in Ndola, Zambia.

1950

• SAB head office and seat of control moves from London to Johannesburg.

1949

• Massive expansion programme of £4.5 million involves breweries, small hotels and pubs.

1948

• National Party wins first post-war election, ushering in 45 years of statutory race segregation.

1945

• Joint promotion of local barley industry with Ohlsson's.

1939 to 1945

• South Africa participates with the Allied forces in World War II, but experiences serious shortages of manpower and materials back home.

1935

• Extensive hop fields established at George in joint venture with Ohlsson's. (The idea of a merger with Ohlsson's was first mooted back in 1899 and then abandoned. Although resuscitated many times, another 20 years would pass before this vision became a reality.)

1933

• Gold standard abolished and economy improves dramatically.

1925

• Stake acquired in Schweppes sparkling beverages.

1918

• Post-war depression accompanied by increasing labour turmoil. Industrial disturbances force sporadic closure of breweries.

1917

• SAB takes over the defunct Union Glass to counter acute shortage of bottles during World War I.

1914

• War breaks out in Europe.

1912

• SAB and rival Ohlsson's co-operate in exploring local hops production.

1911

• SAB stimulates local barley industry – supplying imported seed free of charge and contracting to buy the crop at market prices.

1910

• Union Act comes into force and a unified South Africa takes its place in the British Commonwealth of Nations.
• Expansion continues north of the Limpopo, beyond the borders of South Africa, with the formation of Rhodesian Breweries.

1902

• Capital invested doubles to £2 million, a record for any non-mining company in South Africa.

1901

• Despite the war, annual profits rise to £100 000 and assets exceed £1 million. Tied house concept launched.