Beer boosts revenue by 40%, Zim investors smiling all the way to the bank

Improvement in politics leads to high demand for beer. Huge revenues to make investors happy and will lead to further expansion of company regionally.

Delta Corp. Ltd., Zimbabwe’s biggest company by market capitalization, said Thursday that revenue grew 40 percent in the first quarter, mainly on increased lager beer sales.

In its annual report for the year ended March 31, Delta, which is 37 percent owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev SA, attributed higher volumes to increased consumer demand as the political climate improved following former president Robert Mugabe’s exit in November. The increased acceptance of electronic methods of payment by consumers had eased the impact of the country’s chronic shortage of cash notes, it said. Delta didn’t answer calls made Thursday.

Lager beer volume was up 56 percent over the prior year for the quarter, matching the highest since 2009 when Zimbabwe abolished its own currency, adopting a so-called multi currency economy in which the dollar dominates trade. Prior to 2009, Zimbabwe’s inflation peaked at 500 billion percent according to the International Monetary Fund, crippling retailers as shop shelves sat empty of goods, including beverages…

View Delta Corporation’s page

Read complete article: Bloomberg