Guinness Ghana | Food & Beverage

Guinness Ghana 60 years of shining bright

PROJECT DIRECTED BY

WRITTEN BY

Glen Newton

Romana Moares

Guinness Ghana

Guinness Ghana 60 years of shining bright Guinness Ghana Finance Director Teye Mkushi on diversity, inclusion and Celebrating Life Everyday Everywhere Life is about small pleasures, and few beers exist today that provide this like Guinness – a brand that captures the spirit of Auld Ireland like no other. Even today, more than 250-years on from when the first pint of the black stuff was pulled in Dublin in the mid-1700s, the traditional stout evokes passion and a sense of spiritual affinity in the hearts and minds of those who enjoy it, not least in Ghana, where Guinness has gained such popularity over 60 years that it is regarded as an authentic, much-loved centrepiece of Ghanian culture in its own right.

Since its inception in 1960, Guinness Ghana has grown to become one of the largest beer producers in Ghana and certainly the most high profile, owing to consumers’ love of the Guinness brand as well as its root and branch commitment to innovation and the delivery of a superior customer experience. Alongside Guinness, the company offers a diverse range of signature beers, stouts, and spirits to consumers such as Star, Gulder, Smirnoff, and Orijin - all of which hail from parent company Diageo’s over 200-strong portfo-

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lio of international brands.

“Guinness Ghana is the only total beverage business in Ghana, so we offer a range of products from alcoholic beverages like beer, as you would expect the name Guinness, spirits like Johnnie Walker, but also non-alcoholic beverages like Malta Guinness as well. We’ve been in Ghana for sixty-one years, so we’re very much established in the country and we’re looking to be here for the next 60, at least,” explained Teye Mkushi, Finance Director at Guinness Ghana. She continued: “We’re listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange, we’ve got two brewery sites, one in Accra and one in Kumasi, which are brought to life by a workforce of 1500 talented people, who connect to our purpose of Celebrating Life Everyday Everywhere. We’re impacting not just our employees, but our trade partners and our suppliers as well. And you know, we’re very big on our participation in community as well, we work with about 30,000 farmers.”

Despite the difficulties posed by COVID-19, business is booming at the company. To say Guinness is popular in Ghana would be an understatement, and this popularity has continued to grow to the extent that one in every three beers sold by Guinness Ghana is a bottle of the black stuff. And then there’s demand for the rest of the company’s range of beverages which has also grown consistently with every passing year.

To meet this growing demand, Ghana’s leading total beverage company has recently completed work on a new cutting-edge brewhouse at its Achimota site in Accra, a venture which ties in with Guinness Ghana’s strategy of ensuring continuous investment into the country.

“We’re very excited to have this new state of the art brewhouse which we commissioned last year. And you know, that brewhouse is one where we’ve invested about US$25 million dollars and it’s going to give us the capability to use even more local raw materials. So we’re very proud of that. And I think it’s the first of its kind that’s within the Diageo Africa business. This new brewhouse will make our op-

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Food & Drink Feature

This enhanced production capacity, in addition to boosting Guinness Ghana’s capability and capacity, will also prove to be hugely beneficial to farmers and the wider local economy as demand for local raw materials increases in lockstep.

Following the implementation of the Local Raw Materials (LRM) Act in 2012 – Guinness Ghana has increased its local sourcing from 12% to over 60% and expects to reach 70% of all its raw materials locally by 2024. As Teye passionately expressed, Guinness Ghana’s role in investing in the cultivation of sorghum and building close relationships is a particular source of pride for her and the wider Guinness Ghana leadership team: “We have a very formal and very public strategy where we’ve made a number of commitments with respect to sustainability that we want to achieve by 2030 as a Diageo business globally, with Ghana will playing its role within that. For instance, we’re collaborating with, engaging and rewarding local farmers that we currently source more than 60% of our local raw materials from. Recently, we went up to the north to engage 21 aggregators on how we can take our partnership to the next level.

These are aggregators that have been with us since about 2012, and the type of grain that we source from them, being sorghum, wasn’t a grain that was heavily farmed before. Over the last decade, we’ve essentially built a new supply chain and the partnership that we have with our farmers is something that we take very seriously and pride ourselves on.”

Indeed, the Guinness Ghana story is very much centred around adding value to people and communities, and its drive to be a positive force in Ghanaian society. Another key area of the company’s sustainability strategy can be seen in Guinness Ghana’s commitment to building a diverse workforce and creating a culture of inclusivity which ensures employees are valued and rewarded according to their merits and achievements, regardless of ethnicity, gender, age, or

religion. In-line with the goals of parent company, Diageo, Guinness Ghana is strongly encouraging women to apply for roles in what would have once been considered male positions. Over the coming years, Guinness Ghana is aiming to create a workforce that is split 50:50 by gender.

Teye elaborated further, stating: “The next thing on sustainability for us is around our diversity and inclusion agenda. So right now, Guinness Ghana’s executives are largely women.

We have seven female executives out of nine possible places. So I think, you know, it sometimes seems unusual to people when they see that but the key point is that diversity of gender, experiences and perspectives creates long term sustainable value for our business.

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So right now, Guinness Ghana’s executives are largely women. We have seven female executives out of nine possible places.

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erations about 30% more efficient than ‘standard’ brewhouses.”

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Food & Drink Feature I think when you look at the business beyond the executive level, we want to continue to encourage ladies to join our supply and our commercial functions because this stereotypically, historically would have been thought of as more male functions. But actually, we have quite a few female heroines that are doing really well and our supply chain director, as an example, is a lady and we’ve had customer marketing leads that are also female as well. Diversity and inclusion is something that I’ve really seen that the business takes very seriously and is very intentional about driving. We’ve all got unique talents and strengths, which the business values.”

Going forward, there are a number of exciting projects underway that Teye and the Guinness Ghana team are optimistic about. Much as you might expect from a business with such an innovation-centric outlook, Guinness Ghana is preparing to launch a new range of beverages in the near future which will tantalise the tastebuds of revellers and stay-at-home consumers: “We’re innovating in the RTD category, which is the ready to drink category of things like Smirnoff Ice. We’re adding new flavours, but also in the mainstream spirits category where we’re adding spirits like Smirnoff Chocolate, which is locally produced, and Baileys Delight.”

Diversity and inclusion is something that I’ve really seen that the business takes very seriously and is very intentional about driving.

And then there’s the exciting Black Shines Brightest campaign that Guinness Ghana is spearheading, a fizzing and energetic extravaganza of music, arts and togetherness that celebrates African spirit and the African culture. Bar culture is an integral part of Ghana’s DNA. They are the places where everybody from all walks of life come together not only to share an icecold Guinness but also their ideas, energy, creativity; their hopes and dreams as they let loose

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and express themselves freely amongst friends and their community. Black Shines Brightest will work closely with musicians, artists and communities in these lively, charismatic spaces where joy and creativity become one, and where people connect and come together.

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All in all, these are good times for Guinness Ghana, and indeed Ghana at large. Teye concluded the interview, saying: “I really just want to emphasise how much we pride ourselves on the point that’s we’re a business that has been here for 60 years and are really intent on being here for the next 60 and beyond. We’re demonstrating this with the actions that we’re taking to build local partnerships and bring in investments to grow of our iconic brands and sustainable business in Ghana.”

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