Heineken Brewery SC has introduced two new beers to Ethiopian market called Sofi Buna and Walia 3.3.
This is the third attempt in almost one year where the company introduced a new beer. It is to be recalled that in June 2017, Heineken introduced Walia Radler which has 2.5 percent alcohol content.
This time around–Sofi Buna—a nonalcoholic beer mixed with malt has come with a coffee taste. The second one–Walia 3.3–came with limited alcohol content: 3.3 percent.
Heineken first established itself in the Ethiopian market after acquiring Harar and Bedele brewery factories. At the time, the company bought the two factories from the government.
It first entered the market in August 2011, where it purchased the two factories from the then Privatization & Public Enterprise Supervising Agency (PPESA). The breweries were sold to Heineken for USD 163 million. At the time, the two factories had the capacity to produce 750,000 hecto-liters per year.
Currently, there are around seven breweries operating in Ethiopia with an annual production capacity of 12 million hectoliters and Heineken is among the leaders in the market.
Few researches show that BGI has the biggest market share with 38 percent followed by Heineken with at 30 percent market share.
Over the past one year, the very competitive brewery market in Ethiopia has shown a significant shift where BGI is now on the process of acquiring Raya Brewery and Zebidar.
