Vailima wails

out the bidding process

IT is no secret that Carlton Brewery (Fiji) Limited is interested in buy ing shares in one of Samoa’s suc cess stories, the producers of Vailima, Samoa Breweries.

And the Samoans know it.

Samoan prime minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi was not giving any thing away at the recent Forum Economic Ministers’ Meeting in Apia, saying the government knew that the Fiji brewer was interested but that it would wait to see what bids it received for company shares.

Samoa Breweries Limited began oper ation in 1978, as a joint venture between the government of Samoa and a German company Haase Braurei.

For their part, the success of the busi ness is not the only deciding factor in CBL’s interest in Samoa.

CBL general manager, Hugh Ragg says Samoa’s “decision to reduce tax on divi dend has made it an attractive proposition for us to invest in Samoa.”

Apart from reducing tax on dividend, the Samoans have also reduced income tax rates, and reduced company taxation.

Vailima, known as “Samoa’s Very Own Beer”, is produced and bottled on the out skirts of Apia, and was Gold Medal win ner at the World Monde Selection Beer Awards in 1990, 1992, 1995, and 1998.

Initially Samoa Breweries produced only Vailima Beer and a range of in-house soft drinks. In 1982, it acquired the fran chise for bottling San Miguel Beer, but this association ceased in 1990.

In 1984, it acquired the franchise to bottle Coca Cola and allied brands like Fanta Orange, Sprite and Mello Yello. In 1991, it began bottling EKU Bavaria beer under licence to Erste Kulmbacher Actien brauerei AG.

Carlton Brewery (Fiji) Limited pro duces Fiji Bitter, Fiji Gold, Fiji Export and

has recently begun, in conjunction with its subsidiary. South Pacific Distilleries, pro ducing ready-mixed alcoholic beverages such as Bounty Rum and Coke in a can.

Vailima is the name of a small mountain village in Samoa where Robert Louis Stevenson lived out the last years of his life.

The Samoans named him ‘Tusitala’ - The teller of Tales. His residence still stands there as a monument to these buccaneer days. According to Samoa Breweries, the word Vailima literally translated means.

‘Water in the hand’.

“The origins of the word goes back to a legend about a couple crossing the island of Upolu over the mountain range which runs nearly the length of the island.

When they reached where Vailima village is now, the man was nearly dying of thirst.

Having no other means at all of fetching water, the woman used the palms of her hands to fetch water from a nearby stream from which her husband drank, thus restoring his strength,” it says. ■