Hansa Brewery to close ‘A bit of a sad story for Swakopmund …’ *

MORE than 100 years of brewing history is set to end at Swakopmund later this year, when the town’s Hansa Brewery will be closed down.

The closure of the 77-year-old Hansa Brewery – from which one of Namibia’ most popular beers, Tafel Lager, originated – was announced in a statement yesterday by the Ohlthaver & List Group of Companies, which owns the coastal brewery. O&L’s Group Manager: Public Relations, Patrick Hashingola, said in the statement that the board of directors of Hansa Brewery’s immediate parent company, Namibia Breweries Limited, decided on the closure on Thursday.Cost-cutting efforts on the part of NamBrew are the reason for the decision.The closure is expected to take place around the end of September.150 WORKERS AFFECTED About 150 Hansa Brewery employees are to be affected by the step.The brewery’s workers were informed of the decision on Friday.Hashingola was not yet in a position to say how many employees would lose their jobs.He said a process in which workers’ unions would be consulted had begun, and that various options – such as early retirement, voluntary retrenchment, or redeployment to NamBrew’s brewery in Windhoek – may be open to employees as the process progresses.”It’s a bit of a sad story for Swakopmund,” Ernst Heuschneider, retired long-time former Managing Director of Hansa Brewery, said from the coastal town yesterday.Heuschneider’s family had been intimately involved with Hansa Brewery since its creation in 1928.Before that, explained Heuschneider, his grandfather, Johann Heuschneider, had been a brewing pioneer who started one of Swakopmund’s first breweries in 1904.Heuschneider’s grandfather, his father, Hans Heuschneider, and his uncle, Paul Heuschneider, helped start Hansa Brewery in 1928.At that stage the family lived in the then Lourenço Marques in Mozambique, from where they moved back to Swakopmund at the request of businesspeople at the town who wanted them to establish a new brewery.Equipment imported from Germany was used to set up the brewery, in which his family and investors, who were mostly Swakopmund residents, were the shareholders, Heuschneider recounted.Hansa Brewery became part of the then South West Breweries in 1967.Heuschneider explained that this step was taken when both breweries realised they were too small to exist on their own in the Namibian market at the time.South West Breweries has since grown into NamBrew.Hansa Brewery’s products included Tafel Lager – a brand that still exists today, having grown into one of Namibia’s most popular brands of beer – and Hansa draught beer, Hansa Export, the original Hansa Pilsener, a brand that was sold to South African Breweries in 1983 and that was revived in Namibia only last week, and the winter-time Urbock beer.In recent years production of most of its beers had been moved away from the Hansa Brewery at Swakop­mund to the NamBrew brewery in Windhoek.This included the draught beer, which was still being brewed at Swakopmund until about five years ago, and most of the Tafel Lager formats.At this stage, Hansa Brewery is only brewing and bottling Tafel Lager in 750-millilitre or ‘quart’ bottles.Hansa Brewery has the capacity to produce about 300 000 hectolitres of beer a year.NamBrew’s Windhoek brewery is able to produce about 1,4 million hectolitres, and this is to be increased to 1,5 million hectolitres as soon as some production bottlenecks have been eliminated, NamBrew’s Manager: Corporate Affairs & Strategy, Dixon Norval, said yesterday.”Given the size of NBL’s (Namibian Breweries Limited’s) operations and the need to defend its market position while it remains competitive, there is regrettably no longer justification to continue with two brewing locations in Namibia,” Hashingola said of the board’s decision to close down the brewery in his statement.”The improved efficiencies from operating only one brewery are expected to result in significant cost savings from financial year 2006,” he added.He also said that NamBrew’s brewing capacity was expected to remain sufficient over the next three years to cater for projected growth in demand for the company’s beers.The NamBrew board is committed to further invest in the Windhoek brewery site as the volumes of beer being produced by the company grow, he said.O&L’s Group Manager: Public Relations, Patrick Hashingola, said in the statement that the board of directors of Hansa Brewery’s immediate parent company, Namibia Breweries Limited, decided on the closure on Thursday.Cost-cutting efforts on the part of NamBrew are the reason for the decision.The closure is expected to take place around the end of September.150 WORKERS AFFECTED About 150 Hansa Brewery employees are to be affected by the step.The brewery’s workers were informed of the decision on Friday.Hashingola was not yet in a position to say how many employees would lose their jobs.He said a process in which workers’ unions would be consulted had begun, and that various options – such as early retirement, voluntary retrenchment, or redeployment to NamBrew’s brewery in Windhoek – may be open to employees as the process progresses.”It’s a bit of a sad story for Swakopmund,” Ernst Heuschneider, retired long-time former Managing Director of Hansa Brewery, said from the coastal town yesterday. Heuschneider’s family had been intimately involved with Hansa Brewery since its creation in 1928.Before that, explained Heuschneider, his grandfather, Johann Heuschneider, had been a brewing pioneer who started one of Swakopmund’s first breweries in 1904.Heuschneider’s grandfather, his father, Hans Heuschneider, and his uncle, Paul Heuschneider, helped start Hansa Brewery in 1928.At that stage the family lived in the then Lourenço Marques in Mozambique, from where they moved back to Swakopmund at the request of businesspeople at the town who wanted them to establish a new brewery.Equipment imported from Germany was used to set up the brewery, in which his family and investors, who were mostly Swakopmund residents, were the shareholders, Heuschneider recounted.Hansa Brewery became part of the then South West Breweries in 1967.Heuschneider explained that this step was taken when both breweries realised they were too small to exist on their own in the Namibian market at the time.South West Breweries has since grown into NamBrew.Hansa Brewery’s products included Tafel Lager – a brand that still exists today, having grown into one of Namibia’s most popular brands of beer – and Hansa draught beer, Hansa Export, the original Hansa Pilsener, a brand that was sold to South African Breweries in 1983 and that was revived in Namibia only last week, and the winter-time Urbock beer.In recent years production of most of its beers had been moved away from the Hansa Brewery at Swakop­mund to the NamBrew brewery in Windhoek.This included the draught beer, which was still being brewed at Swakopmund until about five years ago, and most of the Tafel Lager formats.At this stage, Hansa Brewery is only brewing and bottling Tafel Lager in 750-millilitre or ‘quart’ bottles.Hansa Brewery has the capacity to produce about 300 000 hectolitres of beer a year.NamBrew’s Windhoek brewery is able to produce about 1,4 million hectolitres, and this is to be increased to 1,5 million hectolitres as soon as some production bottlenecks have been eliminated, NamBrew’s Manager: Corporate Affairs & Strategy, Dixon Norval, said yesterday.”Given the size of NBL’s (Namibian Breweries Limited’s) operations and the need to defend its market position while it remains competitive, there is regrettably no longer justification to continue with two brewing locations in Namibia,” Hashingola said of the board’s decision to close down the brewery in his statement.”The improved efficiencies from operating only one brewery are expected to result in significant cost savings from financial year 2006,” he added.He also said that NamBrew’s brewing capacity was expected to remain sufficient over the next three years to cater for projected growth in demand for the company’s beers.The NamBrew board is committed to further invest in the Windhoek brewery site as the volumes of beer being produced by the company grow, he said.