Education helps beer entrepreneur to brew success

EDUCATION and parents’ little savings is what made the founder of Eyethu Beverages, Ndumiso Madlala, a determined brewer.

Madlala, who was the master brewer and chief beer officer at MadMead Brewing and owner of the Soweto Gold brand, is now the chairman of the black-owned company that focuses on primary manufacturing in the liquor industry worth over R150 billion annually in South Africa.

He said his parents have always invested in, giving him and his siblings a “great education”.

“No strategy was ever better than my parents. My parents put the little they earned at the height of apartheid into our education. We grew up with few material things as all resources were channelled towards great education,” said Madlala.

Madlala, 40, was born to a chef and a nurse in Elandskop, a village in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal.

He completed his degree in chemical engineering at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and furthered his studies abroad at the University of Twente in Enschede in the Netherlands. He said growing up he wanted to be a medical doctor.

“My eldest brother who was already studying engineering at Wits University convinced me otherwise,” he said.

Madlala said his career in beverages started in the Netherlands after noticing that he enjoyed his beer more than other students.

“My professors approached me to do a thesis in a new technology that was earmarked to revolutionise the beer industry. After finishing my thesis there was a sudden burst of interest from major beer companies to use this new technology,” he said.

Upon his return to South Africa in 2004, Madlala was approached by South African Breweries to be part of the project team that was installing the first beer membrane filter in Africa.

“I got hooked on the beer industry. I found it to be very fascinating after understanding all its intricate processes.”

He said after he graduated as a brewer in 2007, he went to work for Heineken South Africa and SABMiller Africa. “This is where the idea of Soweto Gold was born. I started MadMead Brewing company that put Soweto Gold onto the market in 2013.

“In 2017, I sold the brand to Heineken South Africa.” |