Company type | Public limited company |
---|---|
JSE: DGH | |
Industry | Brewing, Beverage |
Predecessor | Stellenbosch Farmers' Winery Distillers Corporation |
Founded | 4 December 2000 through Merger |
Founder | William Charles Winshaw SFW's Founder Anton Rupert Distillers Corp's Founder |
Defunct | April 26, 2023 |
Fate | Carved-out |
Successor | |
Headquarters | Stellenbosch, South Africa |
Key people | Richard Rushton - CEO |
Revenue | ZAR 17.7 Billion (2014) [1] The shareholding as at 31 March 2014 is shown below: [2] |
ZAR 1.5 Billion | |
Total assets | ZAR 15.9 Billion (2014) |
Number of employees | 5,300 (2014) |
Website | www.distell.co.za |
Distell Group Limited, commonly referred to as Distell, was a multinational brewing and beverage company, based in South Africa. On April 26, 2023, Distell was acquired by Heineken. [3] After that, its operations were integrated into Heineken Beverages, a company created by the merger of its South African unit, Distell, and the African brewery acquired by the Dutch multinational Namibia Breweries. [4]
Distell Group Limited is a producer and marketer of spirits, fine wines, ciders and ready-to-drinks. The group's headquarters are in Stellenbosch, South Africa. [5]
As at February 2014, Distell had 5,300 employees worldwide and an annual turnover of ZAR 17.7 Billion.
Distell Group Limited traces its roots to two major alcoholic beverage companies in South Africa, Stellenbosch Farmers' Winery (SFW) and Distillers Corporation, that merged on 4 December 2000. [6]
Stellenbosch Farmers Winery Group (SFW) the founder member of Distell Group was formed in 1925 by William Charles Winshaw, an American medical doctor. [7] As at the year 2000, SFW produced and distributed wine and spirits as well as non-alcoholic beverages through retail outlets South Africa and across the world. [8]
In 1956 Stellenbosch Farmers Winery Ltd was listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. [9]
Distillers Corporation was formed in 1945 by Anton Rupert. Distillers expanded energetically and very quickly set up marketing relationships and partnerships in the wine and spirits industry. The company became a major producer, focusing on distillates and in particular on the brandy market that it developed from relative obscurity to its current level of prominence. It is renowned for its Bergkelder concept, a marketing innovation that invited wine estates to make use of Distillers' bottling, sales and marketing expertise. In addition, it created a new African icon, Amarula Cream, which is one of the top-selling cream liqueurs in the world. [7]
Distillers Corporation was also listed on the JSE.
On 20 September 2000, Distillers' Corporation and Stellenbosch Farmers Winery directors announced the merger of the two firms. The merger was made possible because both firms had a similar shareholding structure i.e. [10]
This structure allowed the merger not to have any diluting effect on the lead shareholders' effective interest in the merged entity. [11]
On 4 December 2000, the management announced the conclusion of the merger. The newly formed entity was known as Distell from the names of the two constituent companies. [6] [12]
Distell Group's shares began trading on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange on 19 March 2001 under the symbol DST. [6]
In April 2013 Distell bought Scotch whisky company Burn Stewart Distillers from CL Financial for £160m. [13]
Following its acquisition of SABMiller, [14] Anheuser-Busch InBev announced that it would sell its 26.4% acquired state in Distell Group to Public Investment Corporation. [15]
On 15 November 2021, Heineken announced a plan to buy Distell Group, in order to become the market-leading alcoholic beverage supplier in South Africa. The takeovers would be the first major deal for Heineken’s CEO and chairman of the executive board Dolf van den Brink, who took charge at Heineken in June 2020. [16] The acquisition was completed in 2023 [17]
The stock of Distell Group Limited is listed on the JSE, where it trades under the symbol: DST. As of June 2015 [update] shareholding in the group's stock is as depicted in the table below: [18]
Rank | Name of Owner | Percentage Ownership |
---|---|---|
1 | Remgro-Capevin Investments Proprietary Limited | 53.00 |
2 | Other Beverage Interests Proprietary Limited | 26.50 |
3 | Others via the JSE | 20.50 |
Total | 100.00 |
Distell's major brands include: [20]
The Seagram Company Ltd. was a Canadian multinational conglomerate formerly headquartered in Montreal, Quebec. Originally a distiller of Canadian whisky based in Waterloo, Ontario, it was in the 1990s the largest owner of alcoholic beverage brands in the world.
Diageo plc is a British multinational alcoholic beverage company, with its headquarters in London, England. It operates from 132 sites around the world. It is a major distributor of Scotch whisky and other spirits. Distilleries owned by Diageo produce 40 percent of all Scotch whisky with over 24 brands, such as Johnnie Walker, J&B and Old Parr.
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Inver House Distillers Ltd. is a Scotch whisky distiller, based in Airdrie, North Lanarkshire, Scotland. The company is a subsidiary of ThaiBev, one of the largest alcoholic-beverage companies in Southeast Asia.
Namibia Breweries Limited (NBL) is a brewery founded in 1920 and based in Windhoek, Namibia. On April 26, 2023, Heineken announced that it had completed the purchase of NBL.
William Charles Winshaw (1871-1968), was an American physician who created Stellenbosch Farmer's Winery (SFW) in South Africa in 1935. He was born in Kentucky, USA on 21 November 1871 and died in South Africa on 11 March 1968. He also co-owned the Oude Libertas vineyard there and produced Lieberstein, a dry white wine. He was married to Ada Charlotte (Day) and Susan Valerie
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Kenya Wine Agencies Limited (KWAL), is a first line manufacturer, importer and distributor of wine, spirits and non-alcoholic beverages
Remgro Limited is an investment holding company based in Stellenbosch, South Africa. It has interests in banking, financial services, packaging, glass products, medical services, mining, petroleum, beverage, food and personal care products. In 2015, Forbes listed Remgro as the 9th biggest publicly traded company in South Africa and 1436th in the world.
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The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to whisky:
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