An Overview of the Soft Drink Sector in Uganda by Paddy Muramiira of Crown Beverages

Paddy Muramiira, CEO of Crown Beverages Limited, shares his assessment of the soft drink sector in Uganda.

“Initially, soft drinks were bottled in glass in Uganda. The two major players were the Lake Victoria Bottling Company and Coca Cola. The PET bottle introduction liberalized the soft drink sector. Now, there are a number of players that come and go. It is easy entrance, easy exit. That has caused the sector to become very competitive. It also causes an effect on the environment because we found ourselves in an industry that we were not prepared to manage. Before, the glass was returnable so we did not have challenges. You package it, take it back, wash it, and use it again. Now, with the introduction of the PET packaging, it is not returnable, we are not controlling disposal, and this gives us more challenges. We are still playing in both glass and PET in the industry. Because of convenience, the glass population continues to decrease and it is our major issue to see how we can bring back glass packaging to acceptability to protect the environment. Drinking from glass also gives a better quality product for a longer time whereas PET packaged products have a shorter shelf life. Currently, we lead the market share in Uganda. Our two big brothers are New York and Atlanta who have a mechanism to monitor the performance of each in agreement. We compare ourselves with Coke and at the moment we are at 64%. If you bring in some of the other emerging players, we are at about 53%. We do not look at the soft drink manufacturers as competitors because the competition is whoever is competing on the share of pocket. If you go in the market, there are quite a number of products not necessarily in the CSD industry. There are some local drinks which are small and emerge every other month. They come in and out quickly so we are not worried. We are proud of the equity of our brands, we are well researched from the franchiser, and we are accepted by the target groups”, says Paddy Muramiira.

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