When in 1993, Amos Nzeyi, and his partners, Chris Kayoboke and the now deceased Dan Kigozi, made a bid to buy what was left of the assets of the then government-owned Lake Victoria Bottling Company (LVBC), the company was in tatters.
According to Nzeyi, who is now the company’s Executive Chairman, “There was one old line, not enough coolers, bottles, trucks or infrastructure”.
“The company was being subsidised by the government to be able to buy raw materials from PepsiCo and even pay, its workers,” Nzeyi recalls.
At the time LVBC’s assets were put up for privatisation, the state parastatal had already lost the PepsiCo International bottling franchisee to Nzeyi and his friends.
“Once you have the franchise. That’s it. In fact, I was actually laughing at people who thought they were bidding to buy Pepsi. You can’t buy Pepsi. Pepsi is a franchise. The government owned the assets and the franchise was owned by PepsiCo International, but luckily enough our bid was higher,” Nzeyi reminisces.
Aided by the franchise and a good amount of experience in beverages, fast-moving consumer goods and logistics sectors, the three partners, all of them indigenous Ugandans, won the bid to buy the assets of LVBC on 28th February 1993.
The new shareholders injected more capital, installed a second bottling line and renamed the company Crown Bottlers Limited (CBL). However, Kigozi, would later, unfortunately, pass away, on Saturday 21st May 1994. His interests were inherited by the family through Dr. Maggie Kigozi, who at the time was working as the Marketing Director at the company. In December 1997, CBL went into joint ownership with International Pepsi Cola Bottling Investments, (IPCBI) of South Africa, who bought 51% of shares and renamed the company Crown Beverages Limited. However, the Ugandan shareholders bought back the company in March 2002, ushering in an era of unprecedented growth.
Within 10 years of taking over the company and reinvesting, the company started to thrive and make a larger impact, beyond the shareholders.
“Within 10 years, we were paying UGX5 billion in taxes. Remember, in 1986, the entire national tax revenue was UGX5 billion,” Nzeyi recently told stakeholders at the launch of the company’s Aquafina mineral water brand.
Thanks to the multiple investments and reinvestments, the company created more jobs, both directly and indirectly, but more importantly, was able to improve the service- as products were now available across the country.
The company grew from just about 1 million cases of soda annually in 1993 to 22 million cases by 2009 and therefrom has grown more than threefold to 65 million cases today.
“Between October 2021 and October 2022, we have paid UGX185 billion in taxes. In 2021 alone, tax paid was UGX175 billion,” Nzeyi says.
Wide product portfolio available across the country
CBL, bottles Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Mirinda Fruity, Mirinda Orange, Mirinda Pineapple, Mirinda Green Apple, Evervess Tonic, Sting Energy Drink and Nivana Water. Nivana comes in two varieties, namely; still and sparkling.
In November 2022, CBL unveiled Aquafina, its new brand of bottled drinking water. Aquafina, enriched mineral is a brand of PepsiCo, Inc.,. Uganda is the third country to be allowed by PepsiCo International to bottle the Aquafina brand, after Nigeria and Egypt.
“Our products are available in well over 100,000 retail outlets such as kiosks dukas, groceries, supermarkets, restaurants, canteens and depots countrywide. The company has witnessed continuous growth for the last six years and is currently the market leader of the Ugandan carbonated soft drinks industry while employing over 2000 personnel both directly and indirectly,” according to Timothy Luzinda, the company’s Head of Sales and Marketing.
Building one of Uganda’s most resilient and respected companies
The story of Crown Beverages is a unique one⏤ the company has been built on patience, teamwork, resilience and shareholder commitment. Unlike many of its peers, competitors and other companies its size, many of whom are affiliated to larger multinationals, CBL has also been run by local talent using locally mobilised funding.
“My first job when I came in here was to grow a very good team in the production area, ensure that there is supply all the time and the equipment is maintained well. I was also a team player. At the management level, we brought up the philosophy that everyone on site is a salesman because I believe that you can have your goods in place but if they are not purchased, nobody will have a job. So, with that philosophy, we brought in a that has the commitment and that is what has made this company grow,” explains Paddy Muramiirah, the Company’s CEO since 2019.
Although Muramiirah became the CEO in 2019, he previously worked as the Head of Operations since 2005, so he knew the business like the back of his hand. It is thus no wonder that under him, the company has undergone tremendous growth and transformation.
With growth across the board, came stakeholder trust and respect- both domestically and internationally, including within the entire PepsiCo family.
“We have been winning awards from PepsiCo International. We are highly respected by Pepsi-Cola International. They are very happy with us. Actually, we are the darling in Subsaharan Africa. I think we can claim the No.1 position,” Nzeyi proudly says.
“We are proud that our wide portfolio of refreshments has been brightening up homes, parties, and events, and we are even prouder of the trust our loyal customers have shown us over this time. By monitoring trends and consumers’ desires we have developed a range of new drinks and have made changes to several others. In this way, we want to let our customers know that Crown Beverages Limited is always innovating with the customer’s needs in mind,” Nzeyi reaffirms.
Chris Kayoboke, a director in the company, explains it is the company’s never-give-up philosophy that has driven them across the three decades.
“The secret is to be patient. If you lose, it is okay, the next time we are going to win. That way, we became very, very persistent. We couldn’t just give up,” he narrates of the company’s and the shareholders’ determination to win.
Building a more sustainable company into the future
30 years later, the company continues to grow and has even set up its second state-of-the-art factory.
“We needed to expand. Uganda is growing, the population is growing. The middle class, who are the ones who drink our products is also increasing in number. So we knew we needed to do more. We had to look for a nice piece of land and then plan a nice state-of-the-art factory,” Dr. Maggie Kigozi another shareholder says.
With growth and expansion, the company has also continued to invest more in its sustainability agenda especially the care for the environment and water preservation.
“Our concern for the environment has expanded from a local approach to a corporate level, not only at the Crown Beverages level but the entire PepsiCo fraternity globally, we have what we call the sustainability agenda,” intimates Mr. Muramiirah.
“For example, here in Uganda, we recycle plastic bottles (PET) in-house. We have also gone a long way in reducing the weight of plastics used in our packaging. When we reduce the weight of the plastic, we reduce the tonnage that is exposed into the environment,” he says.
“After 30 years of meticulous tradition, high consumer loyalty and a significant market share, while delivering quality at every opportunity. We can only look forward to a future brighter than the past because we have uncountable reasons to believe,” an optimistic Muramiirah says.