* Says $70 million from rights issue
* Plant capacity 100 mln liters beer/yr
LUSAKA, July 13 (Reuters) – Zambian Breweries Plc,
a unit of global brewer SABMiller, said on Friday it
plans to begin production at its new $90 million brewery by
mid-November.
Brewers across Africa are building new facilities to ramp up
beer production and meet growing demand from the continent’s new
middle classes.
Zambian Breweries said the new brewery in Ndola, more than
200 km north of Lusaka, will have an annual production capacity
of 100 million litres, or 267 million million bottles, a year.
The company concluded a rights issue in December through
which it raised $70 million of the total financing.
Beer consumption in the poor but fast-growing country
increased 15 percent in 2010 and was up 31 percent last year.
Zambian Breweries accounts for about 90 percent of beer output
in the southern African country.
SABMiller plans to spend up to $500 million a year for the
next three to five years on building and upgrading breweries in
Africa.
(Reporting by Chris Mfula; Editing by David Dolan)
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