Uganda Breweries Limited
About Company
Our History
Even through the period in which it was a staterun corporation, it remained a crucial entity. The history of the company provides insights into the challenges and the opportunities facing corporate Uganda. It is also a cautionary tale on why it is usually best for the private sector, and not government, to manage business corporations in developing economies.
Early history
Until the arrival of the British, distilled liquor was unknown in Uganda. When British explorers; John Speke and James Grant arrived at the court of Kabaka Mutesa I in 1862, among the many new products and ideas they sold to him was that of brewing of liquor.
In the 1880s and onward during the period of upheaval, Sudanese-born mercenary soldiers known as Nubians introduced liquor into the Ugandan territory. The local liquor was nicknamed “war gin” by the British who noted that the Nubians and other soldiers drank it before battle in order to raise their spirits. From “war gin” came a local mispronunciation “war-agi” or waragi as it is now known. As the Uganda Protectorate formed and the first elements of trade and business began to take root, traders noted that while the local banana and sorghum beer went bad after a short while, waragi by its distilled nature lasted much longer and so could be transported across villages and towns.
The establishment of Uganda Breweries
In 1922, the East African Breweries Limited (EABL) was founded in Kenya, a country with the largest British settler community in East Africa at the time. EABL afterwards began to moot the idea of industrially-produced beer being introduced onto the Ugandan market, thus the birth of Uganda Breweries Ltd. (UBL) Uganda Breweries itself was started in 1946, the year after the Second World War. On the face of it, it did not make any business sense.
However, before the company was launched, a detailed feasibility study had been conducted by EABL. A location was needed in Kampala that was close to an abundant and steady supply of water. That location was Luzira, near Port Bell. Tests were done at Makerere College (later Makerere University) of samples of the water at Luzira, its quality, alkaline content and the microbes in it.
Finally the company was formally started on July 27, 1946. The first Managing Director was a Dane and all the first directors of the new company were Europeans. The first drink produced by the new company came off the line in 1950 with a new, mild beer called “Bell Brand”. For the next six decades, Bell would become the flagship brand of UBL and for many, almost synonymous with the company itself.
In 1950, Macclesfield Brewery of Chesire in England acquired an interest in Uganda Breweries. Not only did this strengthen UBL’s capital base but also signaled that the Ugandan beer market was promising enough for a British brewer to make such an investment.
At the time, a new indigenous middle class was starting to form in Kampala, Entebbe, Mbarara and Jinja. Outspoken Ugandans such as Ignatius Musaazi, Augustine Kamya, Milton Obote and Abubakar Mayanja began to agitate for independence. The Madhvani family of Kakira near Jinja saw an opportunity in this growing Ugandan economy and in 1951 founded a brewing company in Njeru, Jinja called Nile Breweries. Uganda Breweries and Nile Breweries would soon become competitors. By this time, despite only being a relatively new company, UBL had started thinking beyond the Ugandan market. In 1954, it applied to be incorporated in Kenya. Just before Christmas that year, UBL was
Our Ambtion
As Uganda’s heritage brand, our ambition is to be the best performing, most trusted and respected consumer products company in the country.
Uganda Breweries is corporately committed to continuing to play a positive role in society especially through sustainable domestic value creation. In addition to providing access to clean, safe water to more than two Million Ugandans since 2013, the company guarantees market to over 17,000 farmers for locally grown grain like Sorghum and Barley and employ over 22,000 people along our supply and distribution value chain.
As a direct employer of 300 people, we have exported Ugandan talent to various countries, including the United Kingdom, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Kenya and have been recognized by the Federation of Uganda Employers for our excellent talent management programs. In this regard we are proud to be custodians of some of this country’s greatest talent.
We pride ourselves in the fact that we are amongst this country’s top annual tax payers; and a great contributor to the development of our country.
We also pride ourselves on being a hub for best practice because we benchmark and compete against international standards in all the processes and steps taken in manufacturing our celebrated brands.
Our Purpose
Being a part of the Ugandan community and playing our part in building our economy, celebrating lives every day, everywhere.
Our Values
Our Values are at the heart of our business. They form a critical element of our corporate strategy influencing the way we work every day and everywhere. We look at our five corporate values as a boundary, a sphere within which each one of us takes individual responsibility to nurture growth.
We are passionate about consumers. Our curiosity and consumer insights drive our growth. We cherish our brands and we are creative in pursuing their full potential. We are innovative, constantly searching for new ideas that drive growth and developing them across the business.
We value each other. We seek and strive for inclusion and diversity, mutually fulfilling relationships and partnerships and respect for people’s lives.
We give ourselves and each other the freedom to succeed. We trust each other, we are open to challenges and we respond quickly to the opportunities this creates.
We are proud of what we do and how we do it. We behave responsibly with the highest standards of integrity and social responsibility.
We strive to be the best. We are always learning and improving, we set high standards and stretch to exceed them. We celebrate our success.
