1980s

The priority was the manufacturing sector.

John Ibara, an Under Secretary in the civil service, was seconded by the new UPC government to head Uganda Breweries. Gabriel Opio, a future cabinet minister, was the Marketing Manager at the time.

Kigozi, who was a supporter of the Uganda Patriotic Movement party led by Yoweri Museveni in 1980, left the company and fled into exile.

To encourage factories to invest in new equipment and increase production, the government in the 1981/1982 financial year announced a waiver on import taxes on inputs for the manufacturing sector.

The government’s budget proposals for 1981/1982 also lifted state controls of commodity prices.

By the 1983/1984 fiscal year, industrial production had increased sufficiently to end the black market that had dogged the economy for the previous four years.

The government in 1984, after lobbying and protracted negotiations by EABL, announced that it would return UBL to its original owners; East African Breweries and Ind Coope and City Breweries of the UK.

Average daily output in the early to mid-1980s was about 1,500 crates per day.

A new government, the National Resistance Movement (NRM), came to power in January 1986 led by Yoweri Museveni. Much of the central and southern part of the country regained a measure of peace but the economy had been ravaged by years of war and erratic economic conditions.

After 1986, with as Museveni the head of state, Ibara left UBL and returned to the civil service. Daniel Kigozi who had returned from exile, was re-appointed as Managing Director.

The new president made revival of the Ugandan economy an early priority and one of the first companies he visited in 1986 was Uganda Breweries. The President wanted to get familiar with the way government corporations were run and what role they might play in revitalising the economy

What surprised him the most, was how the brewery had managed to stay afloat during all those years of economic decline and political upheaval.

After Kigozi was appointed Minister of Industry, he was replaced by a Kenyan, Ephraim Kubai, a former head of production at EABL.

In 1987, Uganda Breweries was producing only about 2,000 crates per week. The company produced the Bell, Pilsner and Citizen brands. The Head Brewer was Anthony Makai while the late Frank Kyeyune was a Senior Brewer along with Nekemia Matembe.

With demand far outstripping supply, the allocation of beer had to be delicately balanced and became a major part of management meetings.

Many recipients of the beer, usually politicians and government officials however, would sell it on the black market soon after receiving their quota.

In May 1987, Uganda Breweries faced a crisis arising from tensions between Uganda and Kenya. Relations between the new NRM government of Uganda and the Kenya Africa National Union (KANU) government of President Daniel Arap Moi had never been particularly close since Museveni took over power.

Wagons of Uganda Railways at Mombasa would be delayed for days and even weeks without explanation by the Kenya Ports Authority.

On May 19, 1987, over 1,300 tonnes of malt barley belonging to Uganda Breweries were held up in warehouses in Mombasa, causing a further shortage of beer in Uganda in what was already a market of severe shortages.

The company at the time had a football team, Bell FC that was managed by Charles Bakabulindi, the current Minister of State for Sports. Bakabulindi was an electrician at Uganda Breweries as well as head of the Uganda Breweries workers’ union. Frank Nyanzi was the head of marketing at the time.

During these difficult economic times, beer brands from Kenya like White Cap and Tusker were smuggled into Uganda across Lake Victoria. Kenya Breweries even built a small factory in the western town of Kisumu just to supply the Ugandan market.

In 1989, EABL announced plans to expand its output to 4. 2 million crates of beer per annum by the end of 1990.

One of the most interesting episodes in the history of the company occurred in the early to mid-1980s.

The economic situation in Uganda was so dire in as far as the consumer market and operational conditions of companies were concerned that it forced the two brewing rivals, Uganda Breweries and the Jinja-based Nile Breweries, to put aside their differences.

At that time, Nile Breweries’ bottling machine was in a better working condition than Uganda Breweries’. The two companies signed a Memorandum of Understanding in which the beer produced by Uganda Breweries was driven to Jinja and bottled using the Nile Breweries facilities.

In a sense, the two companies had no choice but cooperate. Even if they tried to go it alone in the market, the demand was too weak to be of much profit to either company.