Page 13 - Bulletin 21

10

promotion of Lion Beer caused outrage among Temperance Unions and Alliances. They

claimed that menfolk of Cape Town were now being further tempted to the curse of beer and
billiards.

The SAB was established in Johannesburg in 1895 and their Castle Lager was launched that
same year. In 1897 the company became the first industrial share to be listed on the JSE, and

shortly thereafter was listed on the London Stock Exchange.

SAB followed OCB’s initiative in the promotion of their beer and in 1898 requested New

York architect, Henry Steinmann, to design a brewery at Woodstock based on the ‘American

Skyscraper’ design. In the following year work began at the well known Castle Brewery. All
steel was supplied by Milliken Bros., New York who were familiar with this design, having

completed a number of skyscrapers in New York and Chicago. The brewery was completed
in September 1901, but only opened on 1 April 1902 as a result of delays during the Second

Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902), with the importation of the bottling and brewing machinery.

SAB had, in the meantime, in 1899, acquired Martienssen Brewery in Queen Victoria Street,

which was the first to brew Castle Lager in Cape Town. This was, however, on a reduced
scale and with the assistance of brewers from their Johannesburg brewery.

For the next fifty-four years this rivalry was most noticeable as OCB and SAB strove to

‘capture’ the beer market. This ended in 1956 when SAB took a controlling share of both

OCB and Union Breweries. The latter included their subsidiary Union Glass Ltd., in Dundee
Natal, which had had a long-standing agreement with OCB for the manufacturing of Lion

Beer bottles. Union Glass Ltd. was the oldest maker of glass bottles in South Africa and at
the time of SAB’s takeover had the brand name Talana.

This now gave SAB the controlling interest in the beer brewing industry in South Africa.
After 1996 they gradually extended their interests to other countries, and the company is now

known as SAB Miller, the second largest brewery by volume in the world.