The Sunday News
ZIMBABWE’s largest brewer Delta Beverages has started returning opaque beer containers belonging to small players in the industry fearing far-reaching consequences after the Competition and Tariff Commission indicated that it was investigating the company over corporate bullying related to handling of the containers.
Small players in the industry Kwekwe Breweries which brews Simba beer, Ingwebu which is based in Bulawayo and Gweru-based Go Beer had approached CTC accusing the company of deliberately pushing them out of the opaque beer business by buying their returnable beer containers to create artificial shortages.
This prompted CTC to start investigating Delta.
However, both Delta and some of the affected companies confirmed that there was some movement on the matter.
In an interview, Kwekwe Breweries general manager Mr Energy Chirera confirmed that Delta had returned 1 600 crates of their containers.
“I am not really aware if the matter was concluded by the Competition and Tariff Commission but we received a call from Delta informing us that they were going to deliver our crates. They provided their own transport and brought the empty containers to our Kwekwe depot. Some came from as far as Masvingo,” he said.
Delta company secretary Mr Alex Makamure, however, said this was just normal procedure and had nothing to do with the investigations by CTC.
“As indicated in our previous communication, the containers which were subject to a complaint to the Competition Commission were received from the traders in the normal course of business. Kwekwe Breweries have since collected some of the stock of crates and have been billed for them as per standard practice,” he said.
Mr Makamure said they were expecting Kwekwe Breweries to settle the account as per agreed terms.
“They have not indicated when they will collect the remainder. These transactions are not at the instigation of the Competition Commission, as they accept our view that the complaint was misplaced.
You would accept that holding these containers in stock depletes a business’ cash flow and therefore does not give us any competitive advantage,” he said.
When the companies raised the complaint, Delta had argued that they were withholding the containers as there was an agreement by sorghum beer brewers to accept the crates on deposit and exchange them with each other.
“The sorghum beer manufacturers have arrangements to accept the crates on deposit and exchange them with each other. This is convenient to both traders and consumers.
“We point out that Go-Beer, and Kwekwe Brewery (Simba) have been previously advised to collect their containers on payment of the requisite deposit values. It is our inference from their inaction that they are cash strapped. We have no reasons to hold on to these containers,” he said.
However, the small players were arguing that Delta Beverages was in the habit of buyingt the three companies’ returnable containers and crates from bottle stores, beer halls, bars and pub operators to create packaging shortages for the small companies.
Analysts said the turf wars in the opaque beer business were a result of companies jostling for the market in the wake of a shrinking market for lager beers as imbibers feel the effects of the liquidity crunch.
Most imbibers are now turning to the sorghum beer because it is affordable.
Since last year, Delta in all its trading updates has recorded reduced volumes for lager beer but an increase in its sorghum beer.
The company, when its lager business was more lucrative, was producing standard Chibuku but scaled down in 2013 when it started brewing Super Chibuku at its Chitungwiza brewery.
The Super Chibuku has gained momentum over the last years and in the last trading update early this month the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange-listed heavyweight said the product was now contributing 50 percent of volumes.
