INTERVIEW: Nile Breweries Quality Manager Nsereko discloses secret behind beer company’s overwhelming success over the years

Nile Breweries joined the world to commemorate World Quality Week 2021 that started on November 8-12 under the theme, Sustainability: Improving our Products, People, and Planet.

The Quality week was crowned by World Quality Day which was celebrated on November 11th  or the second Thursday of November every year.

These celebrations were started by The Chartered Quality Institute (CQI) London in 1919, the main purpose behind this celebration was to raise the level of quality awareness in the company and to recognize the efforts and contributions of quality professionals.

According to Mark Nsereko the quality manager of Nile Breweries Mbarara Plant, every year Nile Breweries commemorates World Quality Day given its culture of quality and brewing principle, “We never compromise on Quality”.

The company has been carrying out a series of activities starting 8th at its plants in Jinja and Mbarara to re-echo its quality culture and celebrate the achievements it has got as a result of brewing top-quality beer.

In a question-and-answer interview we had with Nsereko, he said “quality is not an accident but it’s a process that we create in every employee mindset. We partner with our suppliers, train them, audit to ensure we get quality raw material. We have entrenched innovation in all our production processes to ensure top-quality products”.

1.What makes the quality of Nile Breweries Limited’s beers stand out?

The complex set of sensory characteristics that include appearance, aroma, taste and texture make the quality of our beers stand out. Our beers are very stable on the shelf; meaning they stay long without “going bad”. Product stability is generally be broken down into physical, which mainly affects clarity, microbiological stability which is usually affected by spoilage or contamination and flavour stability.

With our World-class level of brewing, our beers last long on the shelf due to “the magic is in the Brew” that only happens in our production processes.

“The reputation and success of our beers rely on the ability to consistently deliver a product that satisfies the consumer”.

2. What enables the teams to achieve this quality?

Sustainable engagement is the drive that enhances the continuous production of quality beers. A positively engaged team easily maintains and preserves the best working practices that yield consistent quality of our beers which in turn builds brand loyalty.

3. Mention some of the accolades your brands have had over the years.

Our most awarded beer Nile Special beer was the Champion beer the ABI (our parent company) Africa Zone for 2019.

·  Nile Special beer – Has 21 Gold Monde Selection

4. Where does the journey of quality begin at NBL?

Supplier quality is the root of having quality beers at NBL. With quality raw materials comes a perfect start to producing a quality beer. Whence, suppliers are an important part of our ABI Supply Chain, as the materials and services that we purchase to produce our final products have a direct impact on the Quality of NBL beer from the following standpoints:

–  Food Safety (avoid the supply of maize grits with mycotoxins),

–  Microbiological (avoid supply of raw materials with microbial contamination),

–  Physical (containment of metals fragments, stones and other visible materials which are not part of the required raw material)

–  Chemical (containment of pesticides or acaricides should not constitute the supplies)

5. How is the theme for this Quality week relevant?

First and foremost, the theme for this World Quality Week 2021 is Sustainability: improving our products, people, and the planet.

Its relevance is about focusing on quality’s role in sustainability and its environmental, social and governance impact. Looking at some of the inputs to our operations is the use of (Heavy Furnace Oil) HFO to run the boilers for a steam generation which steam runs our bottle-washing machine and also used in the Brewing process specifically Brewhouse for wort boiling. The HFO must be of the highest quality to have control of the kind of emissions (carbon monoxide) to the atmosphere.

It’s also relevant to note that the Environmental factors are rapidly taking priority on business agendas and there’s a growing awareness of how much these factors affect both decision-making and stakeholder value. We are thus using the theme for this Quality week to re-emphasize the need to comply with Government policies and regulations towards the environment, Customer and consumer attitudes that could be targeted towards beer production and distribution processes.