SA’s First Black Female Brewer Apiwe Nxusani-Mawela Expands Her Business To Europe After The Alcohol Ban Shut Down Her Brewery
SA’s First Black Female Brewer Apiwe Nxusani-Mawela Expands Her Business To Europe After The Alcohol Ban Shut Down Her Brewery. The Covid 19 pandemic has been affecting a lot of businesses negatively since it started. The lockdown restrictions and covid regulations didn’t make it easier on businesses, even with the alcohol industry as the government introduced an alcohol ban during lockdown, which forced a lot of businesses to shut down due to loss of sales and income.
Apiwe Nxusani-Mawela’s local brewery business was negatively affected by the alcohol ban as she was forced to close it down as she couldn’t repay the loan she took to build the brewery. Nxusani-Mawela then partnered with Beer52, a UK subscription service startup, which reached out to her so that they can produce the Tolokazi beer brand.
They chose to produce the beer in Croatia as it would be expensive to produce in South Africa. “Initially, when we first started talking, we looked at the costings; it was going to be very expensive to produce this side. So then, they [Beer52] approached a brewery in Croatia, and I got in contact with their brewmaster,” Nxusani-Mawela told Business Insider.
According to Business Insider around 200,000 cans of her beer, Tolokazi, were recently brewed in Croatia and distributed across the UK. The beer will reach 100,000 people in the UK who are subscribed to Beer52, a subscription service that introduces beer lovers to beers produced in different parts of the world.
Nxusani-Mawela is now focused on rebuilding her brand and brewing business as she has also managed to secure a manufacturing contract with OC Brewery in Kya Sands in the outskirts of Johannesburg. Nxusani-Mawela is proving that no matter what situation a business faces, an entrepreneur should be prepared to take the fall and also get back to rebuilding as this might lead them to opportunities that will make their business better than it was before.
