Type Public limited company Industry Brewing, Beverage Headquarters South Africa Founded 2000 | Traded as JSE: DST Key people Richard Rushton - CEO Number of employees 5,300 | |
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Predecessor Stellenbosch Farmers' Winery
Distillers Corporation Founder William Charles Winshaw
SFW's Founder
Anton Rupert
Distillers Corp's Founder Stock price DST (JSE) 14,201.00 ZAC +98.00 (+0.69%)8 Mar, 5:00 PM GMT+2 - Disclaimer Parent organization Remgro-KWV Investments Limited | ||
Distell Group Limited, commonly referred to as Distell, is a multinational brewing and beverage company, based in South Africa.
Contents
Overview
Distell Group Limited is one of Africa’s leading producer and marketer of spirits, fine wines, ciders and ready-to-drinks. The group's headquarters are in Stellenbosch, South Africa.
As at February 2014, Distell had 5,300 employees worldwide and an annual turnover of ZAR 17.7 Billion.
History
Distell Group Limited traces its roots to two major alcoholic beverage companies in South Africa, Stellenbosch Farmers' Winery (SFW) and Distillers Corporation, that merged on 4 December 2000.
Stellenbosch Farmers' Winery
Stellenbosch Farmers Winery Group (SFW) the founder member of Distell Group was formed in 1925 by William Charles Winshaw, an American medical doctor. As at the year 2000, SFW produced and distributed wine and spirits as well as non-alcoholic beverages through retail outlets South Africa and across the world.
In 1956 Stellenbosch Farmers Winery Ltd was listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.
Distillers Corporation
Distillers Corporation was formed in 1945 by Anton Rupert. Distillers expanded energetically and very quickly set up marketing relationships and partnerships in the wine and spirits industry. The company became a major producer, focusing on distillates and in particular on the brandy market that it developed from relative obscurity to its current level of prominence. It is renowned for its Bergkelder concept, a marketing innovation that invited wine estates to make use of Distillers' bottling, sales and marketing expertise. In addition, it created a new African icon, Amarula Cream, which is one of the top-selling cream liqueurs in the world.
Distillers Corporation was also listed on the JSE.
Merger transaction
On 20 September 2000, Distillers' Corporation and Stellenbosch Farmers Winery directors announced the merger of the two firms. The merger was made possible because both firms had a similar shareholding structure i.e.
This structure allowed the merger no to have any diluting effect on the lead shareholders' effective interest in the merged entity.
On 4 December 2000, the management announced the conclusion of the merger. The newly formed entity was known as Distell from the names of the two constituent companies.
Distell Group's shares began trading on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange on 19 March 2001 under the symbol DST.
Post merger
In April 2013 Distell bought Scotch whisky company Burn Stewart Distillers for £160m.
Following its acquisition of SABMiller, Anheuser-Busch InBev announced that it would sell its 26.4% acquired state in Distell Group to Public Investment Corporation.
Ownership
The stock of Distell Group Limited is listed on the JSE, where it trades under the symbol: DST. As of June 2015 shareholding in the group's stock is as depicted in the table below:
Brands
Distell's major brands include: