Brewing beer is principally a local activity and there is a strong connection between our operations and the communities in which they operate. We generate employment, taxes and investment for the local and national communities in which our employees, suppliers and consumers live. In turn, there is often a strong sense of loyalty to the company and its brands.
We define corporate social investment (CSI) as ‘a contribution or investment of cash, knowledge, employee time and equipment to people or communities to help them to flourish and help sustain an environment in which we can be a successful business’. In essence, CSI is anything we do to help the local community over and above the direct running of our business. During 2007/08 we strengthened our measurement system to capture this data more effectively and we also provided training and guidance material to our operations to clarify our requirements.
During the year our operations invested US$30 million cash in CSI programmes, 0.9% of pre-tax profits. We estimate our total contribution including time, gifts in kind and charitable donations totalled US$44.8 million or 1.4% of total pre-tax profits. These figures are based on the London Benchmarking Group methodology and exclude investment in responsible alcohol consumption initiatives and HIV/Aids programmes for employees and their dependants.
A more strategic approach
We recognise that there will always be a place for philanthropy and, during the year, charitable donations in themselves amounted to some US$10.9 million. A number of operations including Nile Breweries in Uganda and Backus in Peru also provided humanitarian relief to victims of natural disasters. That said, our operations are increasingly developing more strategic CSI initiatives which encourage the creation of sustainable enterprise and improved quality of life in the communities where we are present.
We encourage our operations to build projects around the key issues of developing entrepreneurs, managing water sustainably and tackling HIV/Aids.
However, this list is not exclusive and any project that helps to embed sustainable development into our value chain is worthy of consideration as part of our CSI activities.
Developing entrepreneurs
Our operations in South Africa have been supporting entrepreneurs for over 10 years. KickStart is a project that promotes business awareness and aims to instil a culture of entrepreneurship among young people by providing training, grants, mentorship and assistance during the set-up phase of a new business. Since its inception, SAB Ltd has invested over US$5 million in KickStart, equipping almost 22,700 young adults with business skills and helping them to start up nearly 3,300 businesses.
This approach is now being applied elsewhere – in Botswana for over four years and, more recently, in Colombia. In March 2008, our Hungarian operation, Dreher, announced the results of its second annual ’Young entrepreneur of the future’ competition with the winners receiving business support and a share of over US$37,000 in prize money. Speaking at the event, Dreher’s Managing Director, Hector Gorosabel, commented: “Dreher Breweries believes in the Hungarian entrepreneurial spirit, and as a responsible enterprise it considers it important to improve the business skills of university and college students.”
We continue to encourage the sharing of our knowledge and experience. During the year, representatives from SAB Ltd shared learnings on managing CSI with our other operations in Africa and Asia.