Part of EABL’s (East Africa Breweries Limited) portfolio of products includes a wide range of reserve brands that are not readily available in most establishments in Nairobi. These bottles are targeted at middle and upper income-earning class market segment who are a small, but steadily rising, market.
In an unprecendeted move, EABL has partnered with one its long-time distributors in the country, Bia Tosha Limited – whose network of the alcoholic beverages market in the country is vast, to set up a high-end spirits shop at the Yaya Centre shopping mall in Nairobi.
The shop dubbed “Berries and Barrels†is located on the second floor of the shopping mall that is normally frequently by affluent clients and will be selling reserve brands only. The aim is to exploit the existing market demand for fine spirits among the burgeoning middle class and the ready market for the same offered by the upper class.
Prices of spirits at the shop will start at Kshs 4,000 with the most expensive brand being the top-end Johnnie Walker and Sons Odyssey reserve brand which will retail at Kshs 160,000 a bottle. Vintage champagne reserve brands like Dom Perignon will retail at Sh44,800 with Courvoisier Initale Extra being the most expensive cognac at Sh67,200 a bottle.
If you’re a fine spirits connoisseurs then this is the place to go shopping for those rare bottles that you wish to have in your stock. From the price range it’s quite clear that the target market is not Tom, Dick or Harry but those whose pockets run deep.
Speaking at the launch event yesterday at the Yaya Centre, Kenya Breweries Limited Managing Director, Joe Muganda, said that the top-end spirits business has taken a new high in Kenya as a result of the increased demand of the reserve brands by the ever-expanding middle and upper-income earning class.
“The sustained demand for top-end spirits by the sophisticated clientele who can pay a little bit more for the drink and want to enjoy the experience has necessitated the interventions we have had in the top-tier spirits markets in the recent past,†he said.