Diageo Africa

Our business has a rich heritage across Africa, producing local brands with locally sourced materials.

Overview

Since the 1820s when the first crates of Guinness arrived ashore, we have worked to produce exceptional brands locally in Africa while empowering the communities around us. Africa is a hugely exciting region for our company. Spanning all price points and categories, our strategy is to grow our beer portfolio fast and our spirits brands faster.

We produce a range of mainstream spirits at the mid-level price range that are tailored to local tastes and flavours. We drive smart investments through local manufacturing, innovation and partnerships to unlock growth. Local sourcing is very important to our strategy, currently at 80%, directly supporting our commercial operations whilst bringing wider economic benefits to local communities, agricultural development and farmers.

While we nurture our global brands, we are committed to developing new ones that resonate with the African market. This has given rise to local legends such as Serengeti, Tanzania’s number one beer, and Orijin Marula, an African gin made with African fruits.

Find out how we build brands

10 %

of all Diageo net sales are generated in Africa

12

breweries

80 %

of our ingredients are locally sourced

Our markets

East Africa: East African Breweries PLC (EABL) is the leading branded alcohol beverage business in East Africa and operates an extensive network of breweries, distilleries, and distribution facilities, especially concentrated in the three core markets of Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania. Find out more

Diageo South, West and Central Africa (SWC) is a newly formed market within Diageo Africa reflecting the company’s new ambition and strategy for the region. The commercial region spans four sub-regions straddling South, West and Central Africa (SWC) where we are executing our strategy through wholly-, partially owned businesses or trade partnerships. These sub-regions include:

Diageo West & Central Africa, headquartered in Lagos, covering Nigeria, Ghana, Angola, Cameroon, DR Congo, Cote d’Ivoire and Ethiopia
Diageo Southern Africa, headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa and covering Southern Africa region including Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Diageo Africa Partner Markets & Indian Ocean Islands

Our brands

With more than 100 brands on offer, consumers in Africa can choose from a variety of drinks for all drinking occasions. While beer has always been a bastion of our offering, spirits and other locally produced drinks are ever-growing in popularity.

See our brand portfolio

ESG

Spirit of Progress

Spirit of Progress is our ten-year action plan to help create a more inclusive and sustainable world. As part of this plan, we're committed to having a positive impact on Africa. On the people, on the environment, and in the future.

Performance

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33%

percentage of female employees

9,517

people (51% women) trained through our Learning for Life programme

33%

reduction in Scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions

Promote positive drinking

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Responsible consumption is paramount to who we are and how we sell. We encourage people to enjoy alcohol safely, providing them with the information and tools they need to make more informed choices.

Our initiatives

We have various initiatives in place to help promote positive drinking:

DRINKiQ is a hugely versatile online educational tool for Africa. It hosts e-learning for consumers and partners like the DVLA in Kenya and Ghana.
SMASHED goes to schools to stop underage drinking, educating future consumers about alcohol.
Together with UNITAR, we launched Wrong side of the road, an educational programme designed to help people understand the consequences of drink driving through speaking to people who made the decision to get behind the wheel after drinking. This was launched in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa.

Our results in 2022

188,000 - people were educated through SMASHED
+88,000 - people in South Africa were reached through Wrong Side of The Road

Learn more about how we promote positive drinking

Pioneer grain-to-glass sustainability

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To cut our carbon emissions and boost water efficiency, we are investing in renewable energy sources such as solar and biomass. We're also trying to reduce our water consumption and replenish local sources. In 2021, we replenished 385,000 cubic metres of water across the region.

To facilitate waste management and recycling in Ghana, we're investing in local infrastructure. Partnering with GRIPE, a recycling alliance, and Coliba we have funded ten new bottle buyback centres.

Learn more about how we are pioneering grain-to-glass sustainability

Investment and growth

We operate 15 sites in Africa including 12 breweries, blending and malting facilities. With such a large and ever-growing presence, we've become a significant employer. In fact, our supply chain comprises more than 100,000 people including our own employees as well as suppliers, farmers and contractors. By developing local talent, we're helping to create an inclusive culture that recognises the power of diversity.

We source 82% of our raw materials locally. Not only does this enhance the authenticity of our products, but it helps to create employment opportunities and revenue in local communities.

To support our supplier network, we have created various farming initiatives ranging from agricultural training to financial schemes that help build resilience. In 2020, our regenerative farmer programmes worked with 47,415 farmers. As a part of the work we do with SightSavers, we also welcomed 71 disabled farmers to our growing network in 2021.

As an employer, we seek out the very best local talent, giving them the tools, skills and opportunities they need to thrive. Having a diverse team of all genders, ethnicities and backgrounds is a priority for us. 50% of our African leadership teams are at or around gender parity, and we've built a healthy culture of international mobility within the company. In fact, 36 employees from Africa relocated to other locations within the Diageo network in 2021.

Supply operations

We have 12 breweries and ten facilities for blending, malting and bottling. Our beer and mainstream spirits brands are produced under licence by third parties in 14 African countries, and we distribute beer and spirits through several third party relationships across the region.

Route to consumer

We have wholly owned entities in South Africa, Cameroon, Ethiopia and Reunion. We also have controlling stakes in East Africa Breweries Limited (EABL), Guinness Nigeria, Guinness Ghana and Seychelles Breweries Limited as well as a majority stake in a JV in Angola. In addition, we have contract brewing arrangements in several countries across the region, most notably with the Castel Group as well as spirits distribution contracts in almost 30 countries.