KAMPALA – Nile Breweries Limited has on Friday, December 4, seen off their country director Thomas Kamphuis who has been part of AB InBev for the last 15 years, three of these in Nile Breweries and welcomed David Valencia to take after him.
Valencia will now take on the mantle to head the company’s operations in Uganda and South Sudan.
Valencia joins Nile Breweries from AB InBev South Africa Business Unit (BU), where he was the Director Mozambique Sales and Route to Market Southern Africa for the unit.
He brings on board his expertise in the beer industry that is more than seven years, most of which have been in Africa, with exposure to multiple markets.
He boasts of a solid commercial, financial and international business background.
At his unveiling at the company headquarters in Luzira, Kampala today, Valencia noted that he was humbled by the warm welcome of the NBL team and by the hospitality of the country. He also shared how excited he was to take on the new assignment.
“I have spent the better part of the last decade working in Southern Africa, and I am thankful for the opportunity to continue to work in this beautiful region of the world. Nile Breweries works hard every day to offer great quality products to our consumers. As part of AB InBEV we work on several initiatives to positively impact communities where we operate,” he said.
He thanked the outgoing Country Director whom he described as a fantastic leader for his years of service and pledged to do his best to ensure the continuity of the legacy left behind by Thomas.
“The first thing is that we will build from the existing strong foundations. I like to dream big and as such I’d like to contribute towards positive change and a business transformation which enables us to innovate faster and deliver inclusive growth.”
Thomas Kamphuis, the outgoing Country Director assured NBL beer consumers of a seamless continuity under his successor. He explained that in the last 3 years the NBL team has been able to realise most of its ambitions and the integration into ABInbev was completed which resulted into efficiency and performance improvements.
“I’m particularly proud of our financial, market share, brand preference and employee engagement results. Our brewery in Mbarara was selected as the best brewery in ABInbev Africa,” he said.
Thomas added that as for most businesses, 2020 has been a tough year and he urged the government of Uganda to carefully consider the partial opening of the on premise channel as well as to continue working with the formal sector to ensure that the long term competitiveness with the informal sector is sustained.
Phil Redman, AB InBev East Africa BU President, lauded Kamphuis for the great contribution he had made to the business over the past 15 years and particularly during this challenging year of the COVID 19 pandemic.
“Under his leadership we’ve seen excellent market share growth in Uganda despite the very competitive environment,” said Redman.
Valencia joins Nile Breweries at the time the company has worked hard to advocate for responsible drinking because they believe that beer is a social catalyzer and every experience with beer should be a positive one.
Such initiatives led Ugandans to recognize Nile Special as the most admired brand in the country.
“We have moved forward in our Global Smart Drinking Goals which contributes to the WHO target of reducing the harmful use of alcohol. We will continue to work hard in our CSR programs, advocating responsible consumption and we will support initiatives to formalize illicit alcohol in order to contribute to the reduction of harmful use of alcohol,” he shared.
