Ambo Mineral Water, which was jointly bought by SABMiller PLC and SouthWest Development (SWD), is going to join the Coca Cola family as SABMiller.

This is following the announcement made by Coca Cola Company and Coca Cola Sabco about their intention to form a company dubbed Coca-Cola Beverages Africa. SABMiller is already significant bottler of Coca Cola products in Africa. Aiming to avoid competition between the two companies, it will sell its Appletiser soft drinks brands to the Coca Cola Company

This will give SABMiller and its local partner the advantage of controlling and bottling Coca Cola in Ethiopia as a majority shareholder.

Ambo Mineral water made its debut to the Ethiopian market back in 1930 and according to The Reporter it is considered as a market leader in the economy. Recently its products as well as packs extended to include plastic bottles and new type of products.

On the other hand Coca Cola was first bottled in 1959 by the then Ethiopian Bottling Share Company.it later was nationalized in 1975 and privatized again 196 after local entrepreneurs bought it. According to The Reporter, in 1995 Coca Cola Sabco bought shares in the business and, in 1999, signed a joint venture agreement with the plants. Two years later in 2001 Coca Cola increased its shares to percent changing the company name to East African Bottling Share Company.

Source: The Reporter