Leading beer makers Nile Breweries Limited (NBL) have Thursday pledged to maintain the current market prices for all their products, in the face of the surging inflation in the country.
The company executives told reporters at their offices in Luzira that they don’t see any short term price hike, as they seek “to enable consumers to continue to enjoy their favorite beers as they cope with the economic hardships, the company said in a statement today.”
“We are not guaranteeing and I don’t think that any business can guarantee that there will be no price increase ever, but for now we want to stand with all Ugandans during these hard times and get through them together where we can,” said Onapito Ekomoloit, the Nile Breweries Legal and Corporate Affairs Director.
“We understand that prices of most commodities, including the raw materials we use to make beer, have increased across the country. However, we also understand that Ugandans are still trying to recover from the upheaval that was the Covid-19 lockdown.”
“That is why we are maintaining our current beer prices despite market pressures and the increasing cost of production,” he added.
The company is also expecting no disruption from the government in terms of tax increments, having made convincing arguments before parliament recently.
“We thank government for listening to us; we asked the government to keep the taxes for beer stable; not necessarily to reduce because they had their own arguments against reducing; but they accepted to keep them stable and that has been helpful, at least now we have some certainty on that.” said JP Ssemakula, the Nile Breweries Connections Manager.
The recommended retail prices have been circulated on the company’s official social media sites and points of sale to raise awareness and drive price compliance along its value chain.
“We need all our sellers to respect the recommended retail prices,” said Molly Horn, the NBL Trade Marketing Manager
“If you find anyone selling our beers at a higher than recommended prices or claiming that we have increased our prices, please inform us and we shall follow up,” Horn said.