South Africa Facing Shortage of Beer Bottles

Beer lovers who prefer glass bottles may struggle to get their hands on their favorite brands, as the recent alcohol sales ban disrupted the  bottle returns.  Windhoek Lager, Amstel and Heineken in glass bottles are difficult to find in South Africa. More than 80% of South African beer is packed in returnable bottles – one of the highest rates of beer bottle recycling in the world.

The sales ban was lifted at the start of February, but the flow of returnable bottles from traders to producers has not yet been restored fully.

On Tuesday, there was no stock available of Heineken (650ml bottles) to order online on Makro’s website, while 330ml bottles of Windhoek Lager seem to have sold out across the country. Windhoek Light was only available at a handful of Makro stores. There was also no stock of Amstel bottles online. Heineken (650ml), Miller Genuine Draught Returnable (660ml), Windhoek Lager (330ml) and Windhoek Draught (440ml) were sold out on the Ultra Liquors website earlier this week.

Group corporate affairs executive Brian Leroni of Massmart, which owns Makro, shared that the alcohol ban may have disrupted the return of empty bottles to the big beer producers, which is affecting the supply of certain bottled beer brands. This was confirmed by Mike Arnold, CEO of Consol, who said that there is a shortage of a returnable beer bottles.

However, there is hope that the condition will improve.