Akwaaba! Welcome! That one word immediately typi fies Ghana. The West African country, wedged between Cöte d'lvoire and Togo, is famed for its hospi tality and friendliness. Relaxation, enjoyment and indeed the celebration of life are very important to Ghanaians. Enjoying a bot tle of beer is part of that friendly lifestyle. r: new brewery the s 10 Ghana has around eighteen million inhabitants, of whom almost two million live in the capital Accra (pro nounced with the stress on the final syllable). In Achimota, one of the dis tricts of Accra, stands the ABC brew ery, formerly Achimota Brewing Company. ABC has been owned by Heineken since the last quarter of 1997, which makes it Heineken's second brewery in Ghana. The first one was the Kumasi Brewery in the city of the same name. Since 1996 Heineken has owned a majority stake in Kumasi following the acquisition of the shares held by Unilever, which withdrew completely from the beer business in West Africa to concen trate on its core activities. Kumasi is located some 260 kilometres inland and for very many years the brewery has been brewing Star and Gulder lager beers, as well as Amstel Malta the non-alcoholic malt drink. With the acquisition of ABC a process was set in motion to merge the two brew eries and to exploit beneficial synergies. A new name had mean while been found: Ghana Breweries Ltd.; but the process involved a lot more. As The World of Heineken found during a visit to the new brew ery. FOLDERS Martin Eson-Benjamin (49) is a con scientious man. All the memos and papers that arrive on his desk are classified and stored away tidily in folders. Creating order to keep a clear overall view seems to be his motto. Martin Eson-Benjamin is the Managing Director of Ghana Breweries. Previously he held the same post at Kumasi Brewery but, after the acquisition of ABC, he pack ed his bags as did the other mem bers of the management team an moved to the brewery in Accra which serves as the operational headquarters of Ghana Breweries. Our conversation is regularly inter rupted by telephone calls or by peo ple dropping in briefly to ask his advice. "Here in Ghana everybody wants to talk to the MD because they think that it is only when they speak to the MD that their problems will be taken seriously", sighs Mr Eson- Benjamin. It does not make his task any simpler as director of a company in transition.

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World of Heineken | 1999 | | pagina 10