A Deutsch Bank Market research has listed Kenya as Africa’s third largest beer consumer, with its market share at 17 per cent of the continent’s. Kenya comes closely behind Nigeria and South Africa who hold 36 per cent and 18 per cent respectively. The results were part of a report based on Diageo’s sales in Africa. Diageo, which operates through its subsidiary East African Breweries Ltd ( EABL), controls roughly 90 per cent of the beer market in Kenya. An earlier market study by Euromonitor had listed EABL as the leading beer company in Kenya, holding an 83% volume share in 2011.
According to the Deutsch Bank Market research, tax revenues are an important indicator in the beer business, with Kenya Revenue Authority’s data showing that the beer industry accounts for just under five per cent of Kenyan government revenues.
The bludgeoning middle class, the study says, is one of the contributing factors to the growth in the beer market in Africa. The rapidly growing middle class in Africa is now a target by companies, with around 60 million consumers having an income of over $3,000 a year and are expected to grow to 100 million by 2015.
The sustained expansion economies in Africa have also played a key role in the growth of the beer market, pushing more people into the middle class bracket. “As wealth increases, legal beer consumption generally increases and in Africa there is a huge opportunity to trade consumers up from the informal segment or home brew into the branded sector and then to international premium beers,” a statement in the report reads.
An earlier report on the beer market in Kenya showed that Kenyans consumed 601 million litres of alcohol in 2011, 30 million litres more than what was consumed in 2010. It also predicted a consumption of 625 litres of alcohol this year. In money terms, Euromonitor International and China Market Research said that Kenyans consumed KES 182 billion worth of alcohol last year compared to KES 165 billion in 2010. This earlier report had attributed the rise in consumption to non-malt beer tax cuts that made alcohol more affordable, and the fact that Kenyans were obligated to drink more from the comfort of their homes due to the ”Mututho” laws.