[2019-07-12] Portuguese group Super Bock focuses on China and gives up on building factory in Angola

Source: Macauhub

China remains the main foreign market for Portuguese group Super Bock, which is seeking to expand its presence in the country, said Rui Lopes Ferreira, the group’s chief executive.

The Portuguese group owns a 20% stake in Sociedade Bebidas de Macau, which in turn owns 100% of Xiamen Bock Brand Operation, with Super Bock products available in about 50 cities in the provinces of Zhejiang and Fujian, which have a combined population of 200 million.

Ferreira, quoted by Angolan newspaper Dinheiro Vivo, said that the goal until 2020 is to double the number of cities in these two provinces alone, and the strategic plan to expand to three other provinces is being developed jointly with the local partner.

The group’s CEO said that the project to build a brewery in Angola, which became the main export market of the company previously known as Unicer – Bebidas de Portugal, had now been officially abandoned.

“Angola is currently a market with residual sales due to the financial and economic crisis that the country is going through,” said Ferreira, who added, “our brands continue to be cherished by Angolan consumers.”

Giving up on the project is the end of an idea that began in 2006, when Manuel Ferreira de Oliveira was still CEO and was taken over by his successors, Pires de Lima, João Abecassis and now Rui Lopes Ferreira.

Unica, the partnership created in Angola with local investors, to facilitate the project’s progress is now in liquidation, and Ferreira said that it involved giving up “an investment that has been estimated at 130 million euros.”

The group is owned by SGPS Viacer (Grupo Viola [46.5%], Arsopi [28.5%] and Banco BPI [25%]) with 56% and the Carlsberg group with the remaining 44%.