SA breweries claim victory in sales during WC

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Positive growth

Priscilla Singh, corporate and brand PR manager at brandhouse, said the group will only receive consolidated June sales order figures in August.

However, she noted "positive growth" in the group's brands during the tournament.

brandhouse is a partnership between Heineken International, alcohol beverage group Diageo and Namibian Breweries.

"There has been an increase in volume and positive growth reported across all brandhouse categories, including spirits. We are very happy with the sales of Heineken, Amstel and Windhoek thus far and brandhouse will continue supporting our trade partners in the demand for these beer brands and our premium spirit brands during the World Cup tournament across South Africa," she said.

brandhouse supplies over 200 major customers including distributors such as Makro, retailer Pick n Pay, restaurants, bars and taverns.

"We worked very closely with our trade partners to ensure they had good forecasting in place and that we were able to organise our logistics on the supply and distribution side to support the additional stock orders," Singh added.

SAB in line with estimates

SA Breweries, the local unit of the brewing giant SABMiller, said while it will only be able to give final volume figures after the soccer showpiece, beer sales are still in line with its original estimates.

"The opening and operation of the official FIFA Fan Fests has in the main been going smoothly. SAB estimates it will sell an additional 100 000 hectolitres of beer during the five week World Cup period, which equates to 30-million x 340ml beers," said Robyn Chalmers, head of communications at SAB.

Paul van de Waal, customer relations manager executive at Makro SA, said: "Unfortunately Massmart is in a closed period at the moment and cannot comment about sales. We will however release a sales update shortly."

The South African Liquor Traders Association declined to comment on the matter, saying it doesn't have sales figures.

Tavern trade

Jerry Nkosi, owner of Mathitha Tarven in Orlando West, Soweto, expressed disappointment in the tournament spin-offs, saying liquor sales were dismal compared with the festive period in December.

"There was some support from the locals before Bafana Bafana bowed out of the competition. We encountered no tourists here," Nkosi said.

Mduduzi Ndlovu, who runs the tavern known as Spanish Tub in Soweto, said Bafana's early exit in the tournament dampened the spirits of local patrons who had supported his business.

"We had a fairly big crowd of people, mostly locals, turning to our tavern to watch the Bafana matches. That boosted our liquor sales a little bit. But we soon noticed a decline in attendance as the national squad bombed out of the tournament," he said.

Fanny Mokoena, president of the National Tourism Hospitality Association, said shebeen owners did not benefit much due to stringent FIFA advertising rules and its fan parks.

Visa credit card report

A recent report by credit card company Visa shows that spending by Visa cardholders increased to about US$566 million - or around R4.28 billion - in the first quarter of the year, a sharp increase over the same period in 2009.

Between kick-off on 11 June and 20 June, about 45 000 Visa transactions were recorded.