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Crown Beverages (Mauritius) Ltd has appointed Paddy Muramiirah, formerly, the Crown Beverages Uganda Chief Executive Officer to head its entry into the Kenyan market.
Last week, we reported that the billionaire owners of Uganda’s Crown Beverages, Amos Nzeyi, Chris Kayoboke and Maggie Kigozi were close to acquiring SBC Kenya Ltd (SBC Kenya), a Kenyan beverages maker.
SBC Kenya Ltd (SBC Kenya), which is fully owned by Kenya Bottling Company Limited, operates a bottling plant in Nairobi as an independent bottler for PepsiCo products within Kenya.
In Uganda, Crown Beverages (Uganda) is the franchise bottler of global food, snack, and beverage giant, PepsiCo, Inc in Uganda. The company bottles Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Mirinda Fruity, Mirinda Orange, Mirinda Pineapple, Mirinda Green Apple, Evervess Tonic, Sting Energy Drink as well as Nivana and Aquafina water.
A search at Mauritius’ Corporate and Business Registration Department shows that Crown Beverages (Mauritius) Ltd was incorporated on the 15th of September 2023 and is owned by Kayoboke Christopher, Kigozi Margaret Jean Blick and Nzeyi Amos.
Amos Nzeyi and Chris Kayoboke, each own 40.885% of Crown Beverages Uganda Limited, while Kigozi Margaret Jean Blick (famously known in Uganda as Dr. Maggie Kigozi) owns 18.23%.
Muramiirah, who relinquished his position in Uganda last year, is already in Kenya. In Uganda, he has been replaced by Hilda Mbabazi as CEO.
Hilda Mbabazi has been the Finance Director since March 2016. Before that, she was Head of Internal Audit between December 2009 and February 2019 and before that, she was a Senior, Audit and Assurance at KPMG Uganda for four and a half years.
Hilda is the company’s first female CEO since 1993 when the current shareholders⏤ Amos Nzeyi, Dr. Maggie Kigozi and Chris Kayoboke, acquired it from the government, following its privatisation.
Muramiirah who became CEO in 2016, has in just seven years more than doubled Crown Beverages’ turnover in Uganda, from UGX228.7 billion in 2016 to UGX646.3 billion⏤ a growth of 183%, at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16%.
In the 7 years of his leadership, the business has also been profitable all through⏤ from UGX9 billion in 2016 to UGX 61.3 billion in 2021. In 2022, profitability declined slightly to UGX50.3 billion. Overall, profitability in the 7 years grew at a CAGR of 28%.
Muramiirah, a Mechanical Engineer by training, joined CBL in 2005 as the Head of Operations and rose through the ranks. He has also overseen the company’s aggressive production expansion throughout the years including the most recent USD90 million 2-phase expansion project to meet new demand domestically and in the region, as well as expand its product portfolio to meet new and emerging consumer tastes and preferences.
The first USD76 million phase includes an installed production capacity of 116,000 bottles per hour⏤ 80,000 bottles of carbonated soft drinks and 36,000 bottles of water.
The second phase is underway and is close to commissioning.
Under Muramiirah, Crown Beverages Uganda Limited has also won several PepsiCo performance awards such as the PepsiCo Europe and Sub-Saharan African (ESSA) Bottler of the Year 2018 award. The company was also named the 1st Runner Up for the global PepsiCo Bottler of the Year award, beating over 200 other PepsiCo bottlers from all over the world.
In 2023, Crown Beverages Limited (CBL), scooped 3 awards at the Africa, Middle East and South Asia (AMESA) PepsiCo International Bottlers Conference in Dubai. The company emerged category winners in the Governance and Net Revenue growth categories and was also declared the Overall Winner in the Faster Growth Category.
Crown Beverages (Mauritius) Ltd will need Muramiirah’s prowess to carve out a significant share in a market disproportionately dominated by Coca-Cola.
According to figures by the Competition Authority of Kenya (CAK), Kenya Bottling Company owns only 1.5% market share with Coca-Cola, the leading player holding a gigantic 93.9% market share, followed by Highlands (3.6%).