Photo: Unsplash
Photo: Unsplash
South African Breweries (SAB) have confirmed they will be pulling R2.5 billion out of their investment plans for the year ahead – just months after making the same decision to withdraw funding, following the reintroduction of the alcohol ban.
SAB cancel ‘huge investments’
Booze was outlawed again at the end of December, in a bid to help ease the burden on South Africa’s overstretched hospitals. SAB have reasoned that longer curfew hours and stricter enforcement of Level 3 rules do enough to help relax the pressure, and they are set to make their arguments against the government in court.
For now, the behemoths of booze have had to accept the situation for what it is. The massive funding cuts will, according to SAB, have a huge impact on job creation and the profitability of companies with whom they work alongside .
Alcohol ban ‘likely to cost jobs, impact over a million citizens’
The crestfallen brewers have lashed out at the unpredictability of these rolling alcohol bans, complaining that the rollout was ‘wholly unexpected’ this time around. In their official statement, SAB maintains that ‘one million livelihoods’ are now at risk, following this latest round of prohibition – and the financial meltdown it’ll be responsible for.
“South African Breweries (SAB) has cancelled a further R2.5 billion of capital investment following the third alcohol ban. This follows a previous cancellation of R2.5 billion in investments, which was pulled in August 2020. After this third and unexpected ban, we have decided to pull more of our capital expenditure.”
“Given the material impact that this third ban on the sale of alcohol has on our business and the possibility of further bans, we’ve no choice but to halt these investments for the foreseeable future. This decision will impact on the profitability of and the number of jobs created by the companies that would have worked with SAB to execute the capital investment plans.”
SAB statement on the alcohol ban
