The Chronicle

BULAWAYO, Wednesday, March 11, 1992 — With the establishment of Nesbitt Brewery (Pvt) Ltd, whose products are expected to be on the market any time next week, Chiredzi has scored a first in putting paid to the National Breweries’ 80-year-old monopoly.

The $5 million Nesbitt Brewery, which is owned by the Chiredzibased N and B Group, will be the first to break the monopoly in the production of clear beer which has always been in the hands of the country’s brewing heavyweight, Delta Corporation. Its beer would be marketed under the name Hunter’s and will be limited to two brands, namely lager and draught. The beer is being brewed under an agreement with Mitchel’s Breweries of South Africa and Czechoslovakia. “As far as the quality of our beer is concerned there will be no problem because there will be no maize but malt in it,” said the managing director of the brewery, Mr Digby Nesbitt.

He added that the beer also stayed in the maturation room for the recommended period so as to prevent drinkers from having an unpleasant after-taste in their mouth.

Mr Nesbitt said that the idea of establishing a brewery came about as a result of continuous shortages of beer in the Lowveld adding that the shortages might have been due to distances from Bulawayo and Harare where the brewers were based. He, however, said that most of the drinkers throughout the country would have to wait for a while before they “get a taste of the new beer” because initially the beer would be made available only to outlets in the Chiredzi, Masvingo, Beitbridge and Chipinge areas.