E-Malt.com News article: South Africa: Soccer Fan Parks to drink SABMiller beers, not Budweiser

Anheuser-Busch InBev NV said it won’t supply Budweiser at fan parks for the soccer World Cup in South Africa, opening the gap for SABMiller Plc to sell beer to as many as seven million people during the month-long tournament, Bloomberg reported on January, 29.

“Any potential beer within the Fan Fest areas will be available generically without any branding,” the Leuven, Belgium-based company said in an e-mailed statement.

Budweiser, which owns the rights as sole provider of beer during the tournament, will focus on selling beer at stadiums.

There will be 10 fan parks around the country with giant screens and bars to cater for fans unable to get tickets for games for the world’s most watched sport event. The parks have been built to cater for a combined 280,000 people a day during the tournament, which begins June 11, according to FIFA.

SABMiller is in talks with FIFA about supplying beer to the fan parks, Nigel Fairbrass, a spokesman for the company, said.

SABMiller sells more than 90 percent of the beer drank in South Africa, which accounts for about 21 percent of its annual operating profit.

Anheuser-Busch, which has sponsored the soccer World Cup since 1986, said the decision not to supply the fan parks was strategic as it will gain global TV exposure from branding at the stadiums, which it said was the best place to “connect Budweiser” with fans.


03 February, 2010