By Amin Kef Sesay
The Sierra Leone Brewery Limited (SLBL) now has a new Managing Director in the person of Laurent Bukasa who replaced Van Dan Tilburg at the helm of affairs of a thriving company that is renowned for manufacturing qualitative alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks in pints and cans which many have testified are truly rich, refreshing and very tasty.
Officially, on Wednesday 20th November, 2019 SLBL bade farewell to Daaf Van Tilburg during a ceremony that took place at the Sierra Lighthouse Hotel, Aberdeen in Freetown. Van Tilburg left a buoyant company that recently invested billions of Leones geared towards upgrading its manufacturing plant at the Wellington Industrial Estate to match up with modern standards of manufacturing and to meet the growing demands of both old and new customers. It is the expectation that with the new MD the company will continue to grow by leaps and bounds and to magnanimously contribute to overall socio-economic development.
One honour that the company has bagged long ago is its pro-active rolling out of its Corporate Social Responsibility which has improved communities not only within its operational area of production but even beyond thereby positively impacting lives. It is on record that SLBL, in close collaboration with the Heineken Foundation, has facilitated and championed the construction of state-of-the-art water wells in communities close to its Wellington Industrial Estate where the company is located. These are communities where, hitherto, accessing pure water supply was a serious nightmare as clean water supply points were non-existent giving rise to various societal ills such as teenage pregnancy, children dropping out of the educational system simply because they moved from one place to another just to fetch water and even when they access one they would spend hours on end before finally getting water. At the end of the day they have become so tired to an extent that there is no time for concentration on their studies. The commendations that have been heaped on the company for giving them respite are very overwhelming and speak volumes of how SLBL is giving back to communities and complementing Government’s development interventions.
The company has been doing the same in terms of giving supports to education, health, sports etc thereby beefing up those sectors and help in identifying local talents.
One of the well placed famers’ groups in the country constitutes Sorghum farmers who plant and harvest sorghum which is an essential ingredient that the company is using in its production chain. SLBL buys sorghum from these farmers who have formed an organization that is constantly supplying the Brewery with sorghum with an exponential numerical strength of over 25,000 farm families spread in different parts of the country. These farmers are now benefitting immensely and as a matter of fact SLBL has been embarking on tours just to encourage more people to come on-board and grow sorghum. The relationship between the farmers and SLBL could be best described as symbiotic and is growing from strength to strength.
Timely honouring of taxes to the National Revenue Authority has been done on a regular basis and such is contributing in helping Government to amass the necessary revenue to finance development programmes.
It therefore came as no big surprise for many to understand that SLBL has been nominated for Best Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) among several other institutions and companies nominated for the upcoming National Entertainment Awards (NEA) 2019 slated to take place at the Bintumani International Conference Centre on the 29th December 2019. The nomination comes as the Brewery is gearing itself to provide abundant beverages Star, Guinness, Mutzig etc. for the benefit of its customers during the coming festive season.
Meanwhile, the Sierra Leone Brewery Limited (SLBL) has dispelled rumors that there is going to be shortage of its favorite beverages saying such comes from the figment of the imagination of individuals who have no business with the company. As far as Management of the company is concerned there will be enough manufactured drinks on the market to last over time further assuring the public that there is cause for any mad rush to buy and hoard.
To translate its preparedness, the Sierra Leone Brewery Limited (SLBL) on the 8th November 2019 cleared four massive storage bright beer tanks from the Queen Elizabeth 11 Quay meant to be installed at its Wellington Industrial Estate production site in the East end of Freetown. The four massive storage beer tanks are meant to further expand the company’s capacity as well as to help improve the quality of its beer products.
From what this medium gathered so far the company is set and ripe to receive a plethora of votes and as voting is now in progress esteem customers in particular and members of the public in general should send an SMS to 2713 via Africell. The ball is now in your court.
