East African Breweries Limited, commonly referred to as EABL, is a Kenya-based holding company that manufactures branded beer, spirits, and non-alcoholic beverages
The group’s headquarters are located in Nairobi, Kenya, with subsidiaries in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and South Sudan. The group has distribution partners in Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda.
East African Breweries Limited was founded in 1922, as Kenya Breweries Limited (KBL), by two white settlers, George and Charles Hurst. The company was owned by the Dodd family of Kenya.
KBL acquired Tanganyika based Tanganyika Breweries in 1935 and 1936. These two companies were merged leading to the creation of the East African Breweries Limited (EABL). The group continued expanding locally through the opening of more breweries such as Mombasa brewery.
In 1954, EABL got listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange. This was among the first listings in the region’s oldest stock exchange. As a group, EABL expanded to Uganda through the acquisition of Uganda Breweries in 1959.
In 1964, the group’s subsidiary name was changed from Tanganyika Breweries Limited to Tanzania Breweries Limited (TBL) following the political unification of Tanganyika and the People’s Republic of Zanzibar and Pemba to form the United Republic of Tanzania. This led to the increased market for the group through the creation of union. However, in 1979 the Government of Tanzania nationalized TBL as part of the Arusha Declaration. The group officially opened 1987 Central Glass Industries Limited (CGI), as a producer of glass containers and bottles therefor leading to internal sourcing.
By 1990, the Dodd family had reduced their shareholding and most of the shareholders were Kenyan and the company was very successful.

In 2000, Diageo acquired majority control of EABL and in the following year, the group cross-listed its share on the Uganda Securities Exchange.
The beer wars: This period led to the beer wars in East Africa between South African Breweries International (Now SABMiller) and EABL. The beer wars ended in 2002 when EABL signed license agreements with South African Breweries International and agreed to terms for share swap in their subsidiaries: Kenya Breweries Limited and Tanzania Breweries Limited (now a SABI subsidiary) In the share exchange EABL acquired a 20% equity stake in TBL and agreed to issue SABI a similar share Kenya Breweries Limited. SABI exited the Kenyan market while EABL exited the Tanzanian market by handing over its Kibo subsidiary to TBL. This partnership gave TBL 98% share of the market as by the year 2004.[4] In the same year, EABL acquires 100% of shares in International Distillers Uganda Limited, a Diageo group company and 46.32% of the issued shares of UDV Kenya Limited.
The partnership between EABL and SAB Miller in Tanzania went through turbulence in 2009, EABL claiming breach of contract by Tanzania Breweries (TBL) that led to low quality of EABL’s drinks that were produced by TBL and restriction of some of Diageo’s and EABL brands to enter the Tanzanian market. This led to EABL’s acquisition of 51% of Serengeti Breweries Limited (SBL) and exit from TBL’s shareholder structure through a $71.5 million successful secondary offer on the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange in 2011. SAB Miller sold its stake Kenya Breweries to East African Breweries.
In 2013, EABL commenced operations in South Sudan through the establishment of East African Beverages South Sudan Limited (EABSS) as a depot in Juba in order to reduce over-reliance on third-party distributors’ logistical arrangements that led to periodic stock outs.

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