ETHIOPIA – BGI Ethiopia, subsidiary of the Castel Group, has appointed Mr Herve Milhade as the company’s new General Manager (CEO), replacing Mr Laurent Lescuyer.
Mr. Milhade joins BGI from its sister company Castel Malawi, which has also welcomed a new head, Thomas Reynaud.
The new BGI boss joined Castel Group in 2018 and has worked in the company’s other subsidiaries including SODIBRA in Cote d’Ivoire, SABC in Cameroun and MOCAF in Centrafrique.
At Castel Malawi, he presided over the turn-around of the company which was on the verge of closure.
Prior to joining Castel Group, Mr Milhade worked at Danone Group, where he spent more than two decades holding different leadership positions including VP Operations within Beverages division, CEO Danone Tessala Beverages Algeria, and Worldwide Industrial VP Danone Beverages Division, among others.
As part of his decades long working experience in the food industry across different sectors in multiple-countries, he has also offered his expertise in companies such as Orangina Suntory France (OSF) part of the Japanese beverage and alcohol company Suntory Group, and McCain Foods.
“BGI welcomes Mr. Milhade and looks forward to benefitting from his long and diverse experience in the global beverage business.
“Given his multicultural experience and his focus on employee well-being, and CSR, the new CEO is expected to build on BGI Ethiopia’s business success as well as its longstanding tradition of promoting industrial peace and community support,” highlighted the company in an official communique.
The new boss joins BGI at the most opportune time marked by the end of the war in Northern Ethiopia with the conclusion of the Pretoria Peace Agreement, paving the way for the reopening of the company’s Raya Brewery-Machew.
In addition to that, Castel Group through BGI recently acquired Meta Abo Brewery from British multinational beverage alcohol company Diageo.
The acquisition is set to extend presence of BGI, which currently boasts of having over 50 percent market share of the Ethiopian beer market.
In addition, it will boost its current production capacity from 5.2m Hectolitres (HL) to 6,400 000 HL.
The Diageo owned brewery joins BGI’s other breweries i.e., St. George Brewery in Addis Ababa, the Kombolcha Brewery, the Hawassa Brewery, Zebidar Brewery and Machew Northern Brewery.
The company also owns and manages the Castel Winery and vineyard located in the town of Zeway.
Established in 2012, the winery produces 12,000 Hectoliters of different wine varieties annually under the brand names Acacia and Rift Valley. It is home to five iconic beer brands and a non-alcoholic malt brand.
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