An investigation into the causes of the decline of traditional beer brand sales in the Zimbabwe beverages industry: A case study Chibuku Breweries

Abstract

This dissertation investigated the causes of the traditional beer sales decline, a case study covering the period 2010 to 2012.Though the traditional beer industry is highly profitable, it is faced with many challenges, which include competing modern brands, social and strategy issues. Some companies failed to realise the intended gains and end up abandoning operations. The study reviewed various literature, assessing the influence of modern beer, social factors and strategies adopted in the beer industry. Both the quantitative and qualitative methods were adopted in this research. Twosets of questionnaires were used as research instruments, one for internal company staff and the other for customers. The research method adopted was a case study method where one company was selected to represent the population of other traditional beer companies across the country. The stratified sampling method was used to select the customer respondents from the Chibuku Harare market. One hundred and five (105) respondents participated in the research which gave a response rate of 69%. The main results indicated that the drivers of traditional sales decline were modern beer penetrations, the failure by firms to satisfy the changing customer needs, who wereadvocating for a better tasting beer with favourable alcohol levels. It was concluded that the decline in traditional beer sales was mainly driven by the strong penetration of local lager, foreign beer brands and the changing social preferencesof customers.It was also concluded that management of traditional beer firms have failed to craft strategies which can stimulate growth and profitability. The study recommended research and development programs to create new innovations on plant and equipment and the product. The study also recommended that management should formulate strategies that improve and satisfy the needs and wants of the young generation customers so that they do not switch to local lager and foreign brands. An area of further study proposed was to assess the impact of organisational culture on performance.