Adami will join SAB sales and distribution director Wayne McAuley and distribution services manager Pieter Wessels in testifying against the allegations referred to the Competition Tribunal by the Competition Commission.
The commission began its probe into the company that controls close to 90% of SA's beer market in 2004, after receiving complaints from liquor distributors. It referred its findings to the tribunal in 2007.
The case is a complex one for the tribunal. It will have to rule over allegations of anticompetitive practices that have had little legal scrutiny in a court environment in SA to date, and on top of that are now also combined into one larger case.
One allegation is market allocation - that SAB carved up markets with third-party distributors, to define the areas in which they operated and prevent them trading in competition to SAB's own depots.
A second allegation concerns restrictive vertical arrangements, which boils down to whether SAB curbed distributors' ability to stock the products of rivals. A third is price discrimination - whether it gave preferential discounts to its chosen distributors to the detriment of others. A fourth charge is that it fixed prices with distributors.
While not all the offences carry penalties for first-time convictions, the charge of market allocation does. If found guilty on that one, SAB could be fined up to 10% of its turnover. SAB denies any wrongdoing.
"After six years of investigation, we welcome the opportunity to directly address the allegations. We believe that the evidence will prove that we have consistently operated in a way that is pro-consumer and pro-competitive," SAB head of strategy Harald Harvey said in a statement.
While SAB's market share has dropped from more than 95% to 87% - as it was in the 12 months to June, according to industry figures cited by rival brewer brandhouse last week - its dominance gives it great power.
Aware of this, SAB says it has almost halved the real price of beer over the past 40 years, a claim that wins support.
"They have always kept their pricing deliberately below the rate of inflation," says Absa Investments analyst Chris Gilmour.
The hearings, scheduled to last for two weeks, were initially due to begin in May but were held up by argument over technical issues.
SAB rival brandhouse said it has been subpoenaed by the tribunal and did not respond to questions. Commission witnesses in the hearing include distributor Big Daddy's, Mkuze Beer Wholesalers and Madadeni Beer Distributors.
These hearings will not include charges of abuse of dominance by SAB, revolving around claims it harmed the interests of rivals such as Bavaria and brandhouse by inducing retailers not to deal with them. That issue, distinct from the alleged weakening of competition between distributors, will be heard separately.
Source: Business Day
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