Tabitha Karanja closed a hardware store and started making wine. Keroche became Kenya’s first large brewery not owned by a multinational.
Starting with fortified wine in Naivasha in 1997, Tabitha Karanja adapted to new taxes, switched to spirits, then beer, and built Keroche Breweries.
Tabitha Karanja was born near Kijabe in central Kenya. She worked as an accounting clerk in the Ministry of Tourism, then married a man who owned a successful hardware store in Naivasha.
In 1997 the couple closed the store and went into wine-making. They began with fortified wine, aimed at the lower end of the market.
When the rules changed
In 2007 the government enacted heavy taxes on locally made wines, and her product was priced out of the market. She switched to ready-to-drink gin and vodka. In 2008 she added beer, starting with a brand called Summit.
In 2013 the factory began expanding, planning to raise production from 60,000 bottles a day to 600,000. The refurbished plant, which cost 5 billion Kenyan shillings, was commissioned in March 2015. Keroche Breweries is described as the first large brewery in Kenya owned by a non-multinational company, and as of 2012 was reported to account for about a fifth of Kenya’s beer consumption.
The detail for founders: a tax change closed one door. She walked through the next, and kept building.
