COLD
ÖÊËRS
One of the liquor stores in Papua
New Guinea, known as 'bottle
shops'. A special department at
South Pacific Brewery makes
sure that such shops are kept
painted the SP colours.
36
again found itself confronted
by competing breweries. A
Japanese brewery produced
its beer for scarcely a year
before it had to close down
for good. In 1973 the coope
ration between the San
Miguel and Swan breweries
led to the building of a brewery. Two
years later Swan's stake was taken
over by San Miguel. In 1983 San Miguel
in its turn was acquired by South Pacific
Brewery.
Copper mines
Even with the additional capacity of
the brewery in Lae, South Pacific Brew
ery was hardly able to meet the growing
demand in the second half of the 'six
ties. But in the early 'seventies sales
started to tail off. The interest for im
ported beers grew at the expense of the
local SP beer. More than anything, it
was the discovery of enormous copper
deposits at Bougainville which had a
major influence on beer consumption,
however strange this may sound.
Recognising the great economic sig
nificance of the copper mines, Papua
New Guinea initiated a vast industrial
project. Roads and a big seaport were
built and even a complete new town rose
up near the mines. Large numbers of
foreigners brought their experience and
expertise to Bougainville to work on the
project. Besides their expertise, the
foreigners also brought containers full
of foods and drinks: fruit, meat, vegeta
bles and... Australian beer. A network
was set up to ensure that the foreign
workers were supplied with their 'own'
familiar foods and drinks.
SP beer wins through
Bougainville is crucial for the econ
omy of Papua New Guinea and it looked
as if South Pacific Brewery was going
to miss the boat. This situation worried
the brewery management and every ef
fort was made to get SP beer on the
Bougainville market.
South Pacific Brewery could not
gain a firm foothold in that attractive
market until it was found that the im
ports of all those products from Au
stralia were not running smoothly. Par
ticularly the (soft) drinks were out of
stock only a few days after delivery in
Bougainville. South Pacific Brewery ap
proached the local authorities and of
fered to handle all the incoming drinks
and to make sure that they were effi
ciently distributed. In exchange for this
service the brewery was given the op
portunity of introducing draught SP
beer.
The beer was well received and
South Pacific Brewery gained a sub
stantial share of the Bougainville mar
ket - partly thanks to the establishment
of its subsidiary company, Bougainville
Beverages Pty. Ltd. Tbday, in 1989 there
is nothing left of the import activities
in Bougainville. All the required prod
ucts are bought in locally, which is very
much to the benefit of the economy of
Papua New Guinea.
Fire
In 1975 a big fire broke out at the
brewery in Lae. The company fire
brigade, assisted by colleagues from
other companies, had a hard struggle
extinguishing the blaze. They were un
able to prevent the total destruction of
the storage tanks and cooling installa
tions. Production had to be stopped for
several weeks, but thanks to good stock
management there was no shortage of
SP beer.
With the cooperation of Heineken
Ibchnisch Beheer and Malayan Brew
eries the brewery at Lae was refur
bished. Fourteen months after the fire
eight big tanks designed by Heineken
had been installed on the brewery site.
These tanks made it possible to operate
much more efficiently and brought a
marked improvement in the working
conditions of the employees in the stor
age cellars. In the long run, therefore,
the fire of 12 May 1975 had a favourable
effect for the Lae brewery after all.
Expansion
In the late 'seventies and early
'eighties South Pacific Brewery was
faced with keen competition. And yet
the brewery was able to maintain its
position as market leader. Because the
market saturation meant that no major
increases were expected in the volume
of beer sales, the business decided in
the first half of the 'eighties to widen
the scope of its activities. Apart from
brewing beer, attention was focused on
the production of soft drinks. The trans
ition proved a success. Currently South
Pacific Brewery has a share of about
of the soft drinks market.
At the moment South Pacific Brew
ery comprises two breweries, three soft
drinks plants and thirteen depots and
provides work for a total of 1,300 em
ployees. After the mining industry, the
company is the biggest production oper
ation in Papua New Guinea.
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