SAB's half-year sales up but warns of rising illicit alcohol trading

SA BREWERIES (SAB), which managed to grow its revenues and profits by the mid-single digits for the second quarter to end-June, has warned that increasing volumes of illegal alcohol products were entering the South African market.

- EDWARD WEST

SAB CEO Richard Rivett-Carnac, interviewed on the same day as its parent Anheuser-Busch InBev released its half-year report, said illegal alcohol product sales were now estimated to make up as much as about 20% of the local market, generating up to R25 billion a year in sales.

This also translated into a loss to the government of many billions of rand through unpaid customs and excise duties and other taxes, he said in an interview.

He said many illegal alcohol product vendors were operating relatively sophisticated schemes, such as recycling bottles, counterfeiting brand labels and bottle tops, and substituting legal brand products with all manner of ingredients that may be dangerous to health, such as ethylene.