Nile Breweries Limited facts for kids

Nile Breweries Limited (NBL) is a very important company in Uganda. It is the biggest maker of beer in the country. NBL also produces water.

Where is Nile Breweries Located?

The main office and first factory of NBL are in a town called Njeru. This town is in the Buikwe District of Uganda. It is about 6 kilometers (4 miles) northeast of Jinja, Uganda.

Njeru is also about 77 kilometers (48 miles) east of Kampala. Kampala is the capital city and the largest city in Uganda.

What Nile Breweries Does

NBL is a major player in the Ugandan beer market. In 2013, the company made about 52 percent of all the beer sold in Uganda. This share has since grown to 57 percent.

NBL created a special beer called Eagle Lager. This beer helps local farmers. It uses sorghum, a type of grain, grown right there in Uganda. This means the company does not have to buy as many ingredients from other countries. There are now different kinds of Eagle Lager, like Eagle Extra, Eagle Poa, and Eagle Dark.

A Look at NBL's History

Nile Breweries started a long time ago in 1951. It began as just one factory in Jinja.

In 1972, the government of Uganda took over the company. Later, in 1997, a company from South Africa called South African Breweries bought a part of NBL. By 2001, they owned the whole company.

Today, Nile Breweries is part of a much larger global company. It joined the ABInBev family in 2016. This happened after ABInBev completed a big business deal with SABMiller plc.

How NBL Operates

NBL has more than one factory. In October 2013, they opened a new factory in Mbarara. Mbarara is about 250 kilometers (155 miles) southwest of Kampala.

Building this new factory cost about US$90.6 million. It was designed to make 5.5 million crates of beer every year. This factory also uses local ingredients. It gets sorghum, maize (corn), and barley from farmers in the region.

The beers made at the Mbarara factory are sold in Uganda. They are also sent to nearby countries like South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

In 2011, NBL also built a special plant in Jinja. This plant helps turn barley into malt, which is needed for making beer. This helps support local barley farmers.

Popular Brands

As of 2013, Nile Breweries made many different kinds of beer. They had ten local beer brands. These included Nile Special, Nile Gold, Club Pilsner, Castle Lite, and Eagle Lager. They also made a traditional African beer called Chibuku Shake Shake.

NBL also sells some imported beers. These include Castle Lager and Grolsch.

The most famous brand, Nile Special, is even sold in Kenya since 2014.