SOUTH AFRICA – South African beer, wine, and spirits producers of all shapes and sizes have joined hands to help make the alcohol industry a more prosperous, just, and safer place, through the formation of the Drinks Federation of South Africa (DF-SA).
The DF-SA is aimed to serve as a platform for engagement with policymakers, regulators, the media, and community partners.
Its Board of Directors features giant industry players such as DGB (Pty) Ltd; Diageo South Africa (Pty) Ltd; Distell Limited; Edward Snell & Company, Heineken South Africa (RF) (Pty) Ltd, Pernod Ricard South Africa (Pty) Ltd, South African Breweries (Pty) Ltd, and Warshay Investments (PTY) trading as KWV.
Monhla Hlahla, the Drinks Federation of South Africa’s newly appointed non-Executive Chairperson and Senior Advisor said, “The drinks industry has been part of this country’s history and will continue to play a significant role in socio-economic growth and employment creation.
“The timing of the Drinks Federation post-COVID lockdown is opportune, as it begins the journey to showcase the industry as a force for good in our society and a reliable partner for government and key stakeholders to build a healthier, prosperous, more inclusive and humane society.
“I am excited to contribute to this journey, whose outcomes will touch many households and society at large.”
To support its work, the DF-SA will be a place for networking, sharing best practices and information on matters of common interest.
These will include leading the industry’s Code of Conduct and a transformation framework; and bringing innovation, scale and visibility to the industry’s efforts to address the illicit trade and promote market formalisation, among other things.
Finally, it will seek to bring scale, the science behind behaviour change, and fresh insights to interventions on road safety, underage drinking, irresponsible drinking, gender-based violence, and FASD, by uniting with Aware.org and collaborating with its members on their responsibility initiatives.
Launched as a united, purposeful, and proactive endeavor to bring together for the first time the whole of the drinks industry for good, the federation has in turn invited tens of thousands of businesses who rely on them for their livelihood and others to join the cause.
According to a 2019 survey from FTI Consulting, the industry supported over 500 000 jobs, delivering a total of R101.1 billion (US$5.69m) to GDP, R7.21 billion (US$405m) in indirect tax payments to the government, and R216.6 in capital investment.
Moreover, for every 1 direct job in the alcohol industry, a total of 8.84 jobs are supported across the economy.
Angela Russell, the Drinks Federation of South Africa’s new CEO, said, “Our journey has no end point, as there will always be challenges and opportunities.
“Our success will come when we meet the expectations of everyday South Africans to make their communities better through the jobs we bring; the societal changes we foster; through metrics showing movement towards a more responsible drinking culture, and the standards by which we hold ourselves and others to account.”
Angela Russell will lead the new federation as its Chief Executive Officer to ensure its exceptional governance and operational success.
She brings extensive and multi-functional commercial and executive leadership experience gained through a 22-year career working for blue chip companies in the Business-to-Business, FMCG, and Medical Device industries across South Africa, the Middle East, India, and Africa.
Formation of DF-SA gives the drinks sector an added impetus with a wholesome representation featuring all the key stakeholders, an addition to the currently present associations representing the varied groups such as Vinpro representing the winemakers, Beer Association of South Africa, and Southern African Alcohol Policy Alliance, among others.
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