Local brewer Bralirwa has reported a growth in beer sales in the first half of 2020 despite the Covid-19 pandemic that has slowed business activity across other sectors of the economy.

According to the firm’s financials, sales volumes in the first half of 2020 rose by 3.8 per cent to 674,767 hectolitres from 650,202 hectolitres in the same period last year.

This is at a time when a majority of products in the local market have recorded a drop in volume.

Sales volumes of soft drinks by the brand however dropped by 23.6 per cent to 229,822 hectolitres.

The firm managed an after-tax profit of Rwf3.9 billion compared to Rwf2.3 billion, 70.6 per cent growth.

With volumes and revenues lines of some product lines contracting, the profits were a result of strict cost management measures, the firm said.

The firm trimmed its total operating costs by about Rwf2 billion to Rwf6.3 billion in the first half of 2020.

Among the aspects that drove down the operating cost was decreased sales costs, lower selling and distribution due to fewer activities as well as lower administrative expenses due to reduced overhead expenses due to Covid-19 mitigating actions.

Merid Demissie, the Managing Director of Bralirwa said that the pandemic had made it impossible to grow volumes of all their product lines but had managed to achieve good performance by better management.

"Due to a challenging Covid-19 situation, we were not able to deliver top-line growth in the first half of the year. Both volume and revenue decreased respectively mainly driven by the impact of Covid-19 pandemic. The good performance first half of 2020 is driven by better bottom line management,” he said.

The pandemic also saw the firm go slow on capital investments in the first half of the year.

"Total capital expenditures in the first half year of 2020 remained relatively low due to Covid-19 mitigating actions. More capital expenditures expected in the second half of the year,” the brewer said.

In its outlook for the rest of the year, the brewer said that they expect to see a decrease in volume of sales compared to last year but plan to mitigate through optimization of route to market and incentivizing distributors.

In 2019, Bralirwa registered a profit of Rwf1.2 billion (full year).