By Amin Kef Sesay
The Sierra Leone Brewery Limited (SLBL), the nation’s premier manufacturer of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, which includes Star Lager Beer, Salone Beer, Mutzig Premium Lager beer, Guinness Foreign Extra Stout, Maltina and Trenk Dark Malt Energy drinks continues to assiduously and vibrantly maintain its operations in full gear, on a regular basis, with its cardinal objective of availing its numerous and esteemed customers, both within and out of the country with their favourite and cherished drinks.
This medium’s attention was caught by rumours making the rounds in certain circles that borders on a current and an expected heightened shortage of the company’s beverages. This rumor has gained currency especially as we have now entered the festive season. In order to ascertain the veracity of those rumours we therefore decided to undertake an independent objective investigation to delve into the matter.
Our reporters successfully monitored one truck loaded with assorted beverages from a SLBL warehouse, said to be a supply to a distributor, to where they were offloaded.
Mr. Alfred Bailey, the Distributor’s Manager, when asked whether there is any semblance of scarcity of beverages that are produced by the company as is being rumoured, expressed total surprise explaining that as far he knows it is quite a thing of the past that the citizenry of this country has experienced any sustained scarcity of SLBL’s products.
He stated that he can categorically maintain that stance because he has been in the business as Distributor’s Manager for over ten years now and therefore knows much about the operations of the company. He confirmed that he gets his supply and sells out to the public regularly.
“It is an open secret that in the recent past the Sierra Leone Brewery Limited embarked on a lot of reforms, procurement and installation of modern gadgets or equipment that have considerably enhanced the productive capacity of the company in order to match up with the corresponding increase in its customer base,” he explained rationally.
He further underscored that it could not come as any surprise for some people to be peddling the falsehood that the company is grappling with the issue of not having the capability to manufacture in order to match up with customers’ demands as some are calculatedly bent on stabbing the company on the back.
Another commentator, Tommy Jones, averred that in a competitive business world you could expect the application of various unsavory tactics just to gain ascendancy. Buttressing his point, he stated that with the various imported drinks that are freely available in the market there is the likelihood the situation is being “created by unscrupulous persons to win sympathy”.
Indeed, it is a truism that during the festive seasons there are a lot of mapped out social activities which invariably means that the demand for beverages that are produced by the company always shoots up. This sudden demand creates a seemingly “fake” scarcity situation. There is a resultant panic buying and this is not good.
Usually the natural flow is not to stock up unduly but to consume and return the empty bottles back to the brewery to fill them. This will ensure a continuous supply chain. The Brewery has an added advantage since September 2018 after the commissioning of their canning packaging facilities and this is backing up their productive capacity.
However, based on the aforementioned conducted private investigation by this Media House it came out glaringly that the company is very mindful of this situation and therefore as a way of averting that, has way back, put certain modalities in place to ensure that individuals get access to their favorite beverages as demanded.
One thing that this medium also learnt from the Management of the company was that SLBL is producing on a twenty-four hours and seven days a week (24/7) basis and sending their products to the market through their distributors regularly. Furthermore, it was abundantly made clear that the company is not closing down during the festive season and there is no need for people to be going around trying to create panic and artificial scarcity through hoarding of its products.
The company frowns on those unscrupulous so-called business people, who for wanting to “unethically” maximize profits may be tempted to buy large quantities of beverages that are manufactured by the Sierra Leone Brewery Company, hide it away and spread the rumours that there is scarcity due to low production by the company. They then start to sell those products way above the normal recommended prices selfishly strangulating the market. This media house is investigating their sources and will alert the appropriate authorities of such acts aimed at disturbing the natural flow of brewery’s products.
“This is not only disingenuous but a bad way of doing business. We cannot, as a company, prevent that from happening which is why it is good that some of you in the Fourth Estate are telling the public the reality of the situation on the ground,” Unisa Conteh, Assistant Corporate Affairs Manager of SLBL intimated. He also highlighted that it is significant for Trade Monitors to be monitoring the situation of the market and take the appropriate action in order to ensure that sanity is uphold and maintained.
From the foregoing, it is indisputably established that Sierra Leone Brewery Limited (SLBL) is right on top of the situation and there is no need for members of the public to panic with regards any scarcity of its beverages. The Brewery’s production operations continues on a daily basis Vis à-vis the artificial scarcity that “some may” want others to believe exists.
It must be noted that an unofficial source from the Brewery has intimated that competitors who are hoarding brewery drinks will be investigated and if found to be causing artificial scarcity of SLBL drinks will face the full force of the law and the relevant authorities.
See subsequent Editions for more on this issue.
