The brandhouse Story
In 2003, mindful of the emergence of a powerful new middle class consumer group and a growing demand for premium brands, Diageo, the world’s largest premium alcohol beverage company, Heineken International, the third largest brewer in the world and Namibia Breweries Limited, one of the leading manufacturing companies in Namibia and part of the respected Olthaver and List Group, saw a great opportunity to create a new business in South Africa.
The new business combined the best of three great companies in terms of brands, people and ways of working, in order to grow faster and further than any of the individual companies could do alone. The joint venture was named brandhouse, and began trading in the South African market on 1 July 2004.
Our Business Today
Since its inception, brandhouse has delivered an outstanding record of success for its shareholders. At the end of June 2009 we celebrated our fifth full year of trading as brandhouse, exceeding our targets and with record performance by many of our brands. The joint venture has also been responsible for a sharp upswing in profits and a strong growth trajectory for brandhouse, when compared to the previous trading results of the three parent companies in South Africa. Our company was also voted by employees as the best medium sized company to work for in the Deloitte’s Best Company to work for Survey in 2007 and 2008.
Today we are one of the leading premium alcohol beverage companies in South Africa employing more than 900 people. In 2007, the repatriation of the Amstel brand into the brandhouse portfolio saw the business take on a new dimension.
Based on the success of brandhouse, the repatriation of Amstel and the strong growth of our premium beer portfolio, led two of our shareholders, Heineken and Diageo, to announce in March 2008 that they would increase their investment in South Africa by building a Greenfield brewery at Sedibeng, south of Johannesburg in the Gauteng Province. The construction of this technologically advanced brewery is nearing completion and will be fully operational by the end of 2009.
Looking to the future, we are excited about the opportunities to continue to grow our business and achieving our vision of being the most celebrated business in South Africa.
Diversity and Inclusion
While being representative of the market that we operate in and embracing the international nature of our business. We acknowledge that through a diverse workforce our decision-making and outcomes will be so much richer.
The diversity in our workplace will reflect, but not be restricted to: gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, disability, age, religion, sexuality, education, family status.
However, we acknowledge that having a diverse workforce is not enough, we need to cultivate an environment that is inclusive of our differences. An environment that not only taps into our employee intellect but understands, values and engages the whole person.
Our Brands
The brandhouse portfolio is unmatched in South Africa – we have something for every adult on any occasion and at most price points and formats across the white spirits, brown spirits, Ready-To-Drink, cider and beer categories. Our portfolio includes some of the world’s leading international brands such as Johnnie Walker, Smirnoff, J&B, Bell’s, Captain Morgan, Jose Cuervo, Baileys, Heineken, Amstel, Windhoek and Guinness.
Click here to see our Brands