Amsterdam-headquartered Heineken has a glass half full outlook on beer gross sales within the Gulf, a area that has a historical past of proscribing alcohol sale and consumption.
On Thursday, Heineken and Dubai-based Maritime and Mercantile Worldwide, a advertising and marketing and distribution agency, introduced that their three way partnership was planning to open the Gulf’s first large-scale brewery in Dubai.
The three way partnership, known as Sirocco, will begin constructing the brewery in late 2025 and has secured all crucial permits, the agency stated in a press release. Building is because of be accomplished in 2027.
Beer manufacturers together with Heineken, Kingfisher, Amstel and Birra Moretti will likely be made on the Dubai facility. At present, the venture has 60 members of workers however Heineken stated that this may be upsized to 190 folks.
Sirocco, which has been supplying alcohol within the UAE for almost 20 years, believes native manufacturing will enhance output to satisfy rising demand. Of the 17.3 million vacationers Dubai welcomed over 2023, greater than 20% of them got here from Western international locations, based on UAE authorities information.
“For our tourism and hospitality prospects, native manufacturing will present higher flexibility to native market calls for,” Georgios Polymenakos, normal supervisor of Sirocco, was quoted as saying. The venture will likely be funded by Sirocco via native borrowing and cashflow, the assertion added.
Though alcohol was free to purchase and eat within the UAE up till the late Nineteen Seventies, restrictions had been imposed in 1979 to protect non secular requirements. In 2006, the Federal Legal Code was amended to take away the requirement for a license to eat alcohol in sure conditions, in a bid to rework Dubai into the tourism hub it’s in the present day. Since then, restrictions have loosened as extra vacationers have poured into the UAE. For instance, residents of Dubai now not need to pay a 30% gross sales tax and a alcohol license charge to purchase liquor. Nonetheless, gross sales to Muslims stay restricted.
Up till fairly just lately, all alcohol was imported and native manufacturing was prohibited. Nonetheless, Abu Dhabi revealed a refined rule change in 2021 that enables license holders to make their very own alcohol on-site. In December 2023, the UAE’s first brewery, Craft by Aspect Hustle, launched. Earlier this 12 months, Falcon Brews, based mostly in Ras Al Khaimah, introduced plans to open a brewery in addition to a bottling plant for spirits within the Al Hulaila Industrial Free Zone. The ability is predicted to be constructed by the top of 2026.
Center Jap international locations, such because the UAE and Saudi Arabia, are more and more seeking to diversify their economies away from oil and spend money on sectors like tourism and hospitality. In doing so, they’ve loosened their guidelines on alcohol.
In February, the primary alcohol retailer opened within the Saudi Arabian capital of Riyadh, the most recent shift within the kingdom’s conservative societal traditions. The shop is for non-Muslim diplomats.
