Heineken Beverages South Africa (HBSA), the new drinks company formed through the takeover of Distell, yesterday announced an employee share scheme that would benefit its almost 5 000 South African employees.
HBSA, with brands such as Heineken, Savanna, Windhoek, Amarula, Nederburg and many more, said its employees would participate through a Workers Trust, which will hold a 6% stake in HBSA.
The scheme is open to all current and future South African full-time employees as well as fixed term contractors of the company.
The scheme, named Bokamoso, a Sotho word meaning “future”, emphasises the notion of a collective future that recognises employees as vital stakeholders in the company, said Millicent Maroga, Heineken Beverages South Africa Corporate Affairs Director.
“Our people are at the heart of our business, and we consider our employees as partners on our growth journey, geared towards our future together. We are happy that our stakeholders were in full support of our name choice,” she said in a statement.
Unlike many other employee share schemes in South Africa, the company said it had opted for a perpetual employee share ownership model that has no vesting period and provides equal participation to all employees.
“As a company, we recognise our success is dependent on having the very best talent, highly motivated employees who are all guided by a strong sense of purpose. Having a scheme with no defined end date or fixed term, allows benefits, in the form of dividends, to flow to both present and future employees indefinitely,” said Maroga.
HBSA envisages paying dividends twice a year, depending on company performance.
The employee share scheme is one of a number of investment and public interest commitments HBSA has made since the Dutch brewer Heineken acquired Distell for €2.4 billion (R47bn) such as a pledge on localisation, supplier development, job creation and investment in research and development.
Earlier this year, at the South Africa Investment Conference, the Dutch brewer also announced it would invest R15.5bn ($856.6m) into South Africa over the next five years.
The funding would be spread across several projects including supporting the brewer’s current infrastructure in the country.
Of the investment, $210m would be used to construct a brewery. A further $94m would go towards the establishment of a maltery.
Heineken’s flagship brewery in the region is located in Sedibeng, just outside of Johannesburg. Sedibeng’s capacity was increased in 2020 from 5 million hectolitres (hl) to 8.5 million hl. The site not only supplies South Africa but exports to neighbouring markets.
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