Cameroonians guzzled their way through more than five million hectolitres of beer last year a recent report has revealed.

According to the published figures, the "Societe Anonyme des Brasseries du Cameroon" made a net profit of more than 26 billion CFA francs in 2013 and their sales had increased by 1.1 per cent compared to 2012 thanks to its 81.2 per cent market share in this sector of the country.

The brewery was also pretty pleased with their 28 per cent increase in sales of soft drinks compared to the previous year, reaching 2.12 million hl in a global market of 3.17 million.

Growth also noted natural mineral water sales were up by 11.8%, standing at 735,000 hl in a global market of 1.04 million hl. An impressive 210,152 hl of Alcomix were sold in a global market of 250,000 hl although competition was very scarce.

The 2013 activities report reviewed at the Board of Directors of the SABC, held earlier this month on June 11, in Douala, notes that the company has to face strong revival of competition in several forms:

"The promo Capsules almost permanent from our competitors UCB and Guinness, which forced us to follow," says the report. Despite these initiatives, SABC remains the leader on 6,192,000 hectolitres of beer sold in Cameroon in 2013 with an 81.2% share.

Guinness comes in second with 12.3% share; before the Cameroon Union of Breweries (UCB), third with 5.9% and other operators which represent 0.6%.

It would appear Cameroonians are the main consumers since only 50,394 hectolitres were exported by the SABC in 2013.

This year SABC expects to sell 5.24 million hl of beer to its customers which would represent an increase of 4.4% compared in the year 2013.

In terms of financial health indicators are green to go. The company headed by Francis Batista (who succeeded André Siaka in January 15, 2014) boasted of their net profit of nearly 27 billion CFA francs last year to a turnover of 329 billion CFA francs, up 2.4% compared to 2012.