Bralirwa Plc yesterday launched the local production of Heineken beer, which was previously imported from the Netherlands.

Bralirwa becomes the 9th subsidiary of the Heineken Group to produce the drink locally. The brand will be produced in its Gisenyi Brewery.

By producing it locally, the firm has also revised the drinks retail price from current Rwf1000 to Rwf800. However, the drink’s bottles will now be returnable.

This could be a move to drive up sales of canned beer under the same brand as a section of the brand’s consumer prefer the disposable containers.

The firm registered a profit of Rwf2.1b in the first half of 2018 following total revenues of Rwf45.4b in the first half of 2018.

The launch comes two day after Skol, a competing brewer launched a premium drink ‘SKOL Select’ on the market.

Like Heineken, Skol’s new drink is branded as a premium drink with an alcohol percentage of 5.5 and sold in 33cl bottles leading to speculations that it’s meant to rival the former.

Skol’s beer is already available in crates of twenty-four 33cl bottles at a retail price of Rwf 700 per bottle.

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