Angola & Portugal: Unicer is to invest 150 million euros in Angolan factory

Unicer Group, Portugal’s biggest beer maker, plans to invest 150 million euros in a beer factory in Angola, a country in which is currently its largest export market, the company's chairman has said on March 16, according to MacauHub.

Speaking to Portuguese daily Público, Ferreira de Oliveira said that the new unit based in Bom Jesus, on the outskirts of Luanda, which will be the first the Portuguese group has opened on foreign soil will be operational by mid 2008 and will have a production capacity of 70 million liters in its initial phase, and 140 million liters at full capacity.

"We hope that very soon it can be approved in a Cabinet Meeting so that we can then move ahead with the process. If that happens by April, we can approve the engineering and tenders by the end of the year and the factory can come into production in mid 2008,” Oliveira said.

The Cristal brand of beer is the one which Unicer sells most in Angola, followed by SuperBock, and in the premium segment it leads with Carlsberg.

In 2005, Unicer exported 60 million liters of beer to Angola, more than half of the total sold abroad, and the company expects the market to grow.

"The expectation is that this figure will grow significantly over the next few years because it is clearly developing market," Oliveira said.

Unicer also exports its products to Spain and France as well as Cape Verde and Guinea Bissau, each market accounting for annual sales of around 6 million euros.

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