Red Stripe sells minority shares in St Lucia, Haiti breweries

The Jamaica-based brewery, Red Stripe, says it has sold its minority shares in the Brasserie Nationale d'Haiti and the Windward & Leeward St Lucia to Heineken.

Red Stripe said it received US$9.3 million for the sale of the 15 per cent shares in the two companies and that the funds would be used for capital investments.

"This is the right time to dispose of these minority shareholdings as we have ambitious plans for Red Stripe, with several major initiatives being undertaken," Cedric Blair, Red Stripe's managing director, said in a statement.

"These include the installation of our co-generation plant, plant optimisation, and Project Grow - the conversion to the use of locally sourced raw materials."

The two Caribbean-based breweries that have been sold will continue to brew Guinness under licence for Diageo, in addition to the other licensed breweries in Guyana, Trinidad, The Bahamas, St Vincent, Belize, Grenada, St Kitts, Barbados, Panama, Dominica, and Antigua.

Red Stripe has invested US$7 million in the plant, which uses the heat created from generating electricity to produce steam. It plans to use liquefied petroleum gas to fire its dual-fuel engine that will arrive in January until liquefied natural gas becomes available in Jamaica.

The expected completion date for the co-generation plant is March 2014, and the company expects to reduce their energy costs by approximately 40 per cent through this initiative.

Red Stripe said it also expects to complete three pilot brews for its cassava beer by the end of this year and is hoping to produce cassava beer by September 2014.

- CMC