President Uhuru Kenyatta today made the announcement during a press briefing at State house.
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The new move comes less than a year after the beer giant launched a new beer brand called Tusker Cider, made from crushed apples targeting the middle class youth.
“Our ambition is to innovate constantly and at scale in order to address changing tastes and preference across a diverse category of consumers in the Kenyan market,” Kenya Breweries Limited’s managing director Jane Karuku said in a statement during the launch.
Kenya’s growing middle class and millennials have over the years grown more bold and now sample ‘foreign and exotic drinks’ to suit their palate something which has forced beer manufacturers in the country to keep up or ship out.
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The entry of foreign beers such as Faxe sourced from Denmark which recently entered into a distribution agreement with WOW beverages has also complicated matters for kenya’s beer manufacturers.
By selling beer with more alcohol content at a cheaper or same price like traditional beer, they have slowly cut a niche for themselves in the local market.
President Uhuru Kenyatta today made the announcement during a press briefing at State house where he said the Nairobi Securities Exchange listed company will open a Sh50 billion plant in Kisumu.
“This investment valued at Sh15billion will result in a modern, state-of-the-art brewery will see at least 110,000 Kenyans derive a source of livelihood,” he said.
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He added that 30,000 farmers in Kisumu, Siaya, Homabay, Migori, Tharaka Nithi, Machakos and Makueni have been engaged to grow sorghum.
The choice of Kisumu is simple, Kisumu is the most industrialized urban area in western and Nyanza Kenya and therefore EABL hopes to use Kisumu as a strategic distribution point to all other major towns within the region.
So far the Ruaraka based company is yet to announce which beer beverages will be manufactured in Kisumu.
Among the expected benefits the plant will bring is create job opportunities for the locals and unlock the economic potential of Kisumu county.
