Archive record · Brewery
Al Ahram Beverages
Cairo, Egypt
- Founded
- 1897
- Archive ID
- TB-65V9QBRQ
- Last checked
- 2026-08-05
Who owns this brewery?
The direct owner is recorded. No company is held above it.
- Al Ahram BeveragesThis brewery
- Heineken N.V.Conglomerate
From the record
Summary
Egypt's dominant beverage company and brewer of the Egyptian Stella — an entirely separate beer from Belgium's Stella Artois, despite the shared name.
A summary written during research. The sourced facts are in the sections below.
Tally’s Take
Egypt's Stella has nothing to do with the Belgian one. Two rival Alexandria and Cairo breweries launched beers of the same name in the 1890s, then merged.
The Museum
Timeline
- 2002Bought by Heineken
Acquired by Heineken International in 2002 — Egypt's dominant brewer, and one of the few large brewing businesses in a majority-Muslim country, passing to a European multinational.
The Beer Library
Beers
Stella
Year-RoundPale Lager
Two rival Belgian-founded breweries in Alexandria and Cairo both launched a beer called Stella within a year of each other in the 1890s, brewed to completely different recipes. Rather than fight over the name forever, they merged in 1921 and settled on one shared recipe — the same Stella still poured across Egypt today.
Drank this? Add it to your passport →Sakara Gold
European-style pale lager / low-alcohol brew
Official ABC current brand page. (ACTIVE) [Egypt Pass 01]
Drank this? Add it to your passport →Sakara El-King 10%
Strong lager
Official ABC current brand page. (ACTIVE) [Egypt Pass 01]
Drank this? Add it to your passport →Meister Max
High-alcohol lager
Official ABC current brand page. (ACTIVE) [Egypt Pass 01]
Drank this? Add it to your passport →Heineken
Lager
ABC official Egyptian brand page. (ACTIVE) [Egypt Pass 01]
Drank this? Add it to your passport →Birell
Non-alcoholic malt beverage
Treat as NA malt beverage; official page does not provide ABV in retrieved text. (ACTIVE) [Egypt Pass 01]
Drank this? Add it to your passport →Fayrouz Pineapple
Flavoured malt beverage
Keep under NA/low-alcohol universe; beverage taxonomy should remain explicit. (ACTIVE) [Egypt Pass 01]
Drank this? Add it to your passport →Fayrouz Apple
Flavoured malt beverage
Official ABC page. (ACTIVE) [Egypt Pass 01]
Drank this? Add it to your passport →Fayrouz Cactus Fruit
Flavoured malt beverage
Official ABC page. (ACTIVE) [Egypt Pass 01]
Drank this? Add it to your passport →Fayrouz Pear
Flavoured malt beverage
Official ABC page. (ACTIVE) [Egypt Pass 01]
Drank this? Add it to your passport →On the record
Awards
- 2011
Gold Medal — Stella
Monde Selection
Only awards we could attribute to a named body and year appear here. An empty section means unresearched, not unawarded.
Follow the money
How it changed hands
1 recorded move- 1897Founded
- 2002Bought by Heineken
Acquired by Heineken International in 2002 — Egypt's dominant brewer, and one of the few large brewing businesses in a majority-Muslim country, passing to a European multinational.
Today the chain tops out at Heineken N.V..
Show your working
Sources
- controlConfirmed
Al Ahram Beverages is controlled by Founder / family.
Heineken Holding N.V. Annual Report 2025 · Heineken Holding N.V. · 2026-04
PrimaryHigh reliabilitySource accessed 2026-08-05Claim last checked 2026-08-05
Only the claims above are sourced. Everything else on this page is the archive's own research and has not yet been tied to a document — which is worth knowing rather than hiding.
Straight answers
Common questions about Al Ahram Beverages
- Who owns Al Ahram Beverages?
- Al Ahram Beverages is owned by Heineken N.V.. Al Ahram Beverages is based in Cairo, Egypt.
- Is Al Ahram Beverages still independent?
- No. Al Ahram Beverages is owned by Heineken N.V. and is no longer independent.
- When was Al Ahram Beverages acquired?
- 2002. Acquired by Heineken International in 2002 — Egypt's dominant brewer, and one of the few large brewing businesses in a majority-Muslim country, passing to a European multinational.
- When was Al Ahram Beverages founded?
- Al Ahram Beverages was founded in 1897 in Cairo, Egypt.
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