Johannesburg - As the world’s biggest brewer, Anheuser-Busch InBev, looks set to buy SABMiller out for R1.5 trillion, here are some fun facts about the SA-grown brewer that you may not have known.
1. SABMiller is the world’s second-largest maker of beer, having attained this status after buying out Miller Brewing in 2002.
2. The company, which was previously known as South African Breweries, dates its history back to 1895 - making it a historical icon that is as old as SA’s first industry.
3. Two years after founding, it went on to become a listed company, and is currently the second-oldest listed company still around after DRDGold, which made its debut in 1895.
4. At the end of the last century, the company went on to become an international brewer, and listed in London.
5. SABMiller makes more than 200 beers in over 80 countries and turns over more than $22 billion.
6. In 2013, SABMiller launched its first fruit flavoured beer in South Africa, Flying Fish, which is available in orange and lemon flavours.
7. SABMiller’s Chinese associate, CR Snow, produces the world’s largest single beer brand by volume – Snow. This brewer pushes out more than the entire German beer market.
8. The brewer’s global barley consumption is more than a quarter of Britain’s total annual barley output.
9. Every year, SABMiller brews the equivalent of more than 430 million pints.
10. Every minute of every day, almost 140 000 bottles of SABMiller beer are sold around the world.
11. A blessed batch of Pilsner Urquell has been sent to the Pope every Easter since 1903, when then Pope Leo XIII ordered the beer because his physicians recommended it.
IOL