Out of 50 beers drunk by
South Africans, 49 are
brewed by South African
Breweries (SAB). Founded
more than a century ago, SAB
controlled most of the local beer market by 1950 with brands such as Castle and Lion. When the
government repealed the ban on the sale of alcohol to
blacks in the 1960s, SAB and other brewers competed for
the rapidly growing market. SAB fought successfully to retain its dominance of the market. With the end of
apartheid, foreign brewers have been tempted to break
SAB’s near-monopoly but have been deterred by the entry
barriers SAB has erected: