South African beer drinkers were facing another week of enforced abstinence as brewer SABMiller admitted on 15 February 2007 that beer bottles remained in short supply, courtesy of a faulty glass furn…
South African beer drinkers were facing another week of enforced abstinence as brewer SABMiller admitted on 15 February 2007 that beer bottles remained in short supply, courtesy of a faulty glass furnace. SABMiller said that it was struggling to meet demand for bottles of Amstel, Miller Genuine Draft, Peroni, Reds and Sarita cider. The reason, says SABMiller spokesperson Michael Farr, is a lack of “flint and green glass bottles”. “A furnace belonging to our supplier, Consol Glass, was out of operation for a brief period last year. “The furnace has started operating again but it will take time of us to catch our stock supplies up to the level we want them to be. “It will probably take another week for that to happen,” he said. Consol marketing and sales director Dale Carolin said the company had been caught on the back foot when a furnace due for maintenance early in 2007 had to shut down in December 2006 during the peak beverage season. Meanwhile, as hot days see demand for booming demand for cold beverages, bottlestore owners say the shortage has had a huge impact on their business.