Al Ahram Beverages
Cairo, Egypt · Est. 1897
Tally's Take
Why this matters
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 →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 reliabilityAccessed 2026-08-05Reviewed 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.
Drinking Al Ahram Beverages? Stamp it in your passport.
Discover it here — collect it in the Passport. Track every beer, earn stamps, and build your own beer passport.
Every brewery deserves its full story told.
If you're the owner or team behind Al Ahram Beverages, we'll build out your complete profile — history, the people, every beer — and feature you in a Tally's documentary. No cost, just your story.