A NEW brewery in East London plans to begin production before May 2003. According to Gerhard de la Porte, managing director of WeizenGold South Africa, the construction of the brewery will begin as soon as "all the loose ends are sewn up. The brewery will be erected as phase one of East London's new Industrial Development Zone on the West Bank. A 60 per cent guarantee scheme has been provided by the state of Bavaria in Germany to secure the collateral from Rand Merchant Bank's bridging finance to start construction on the brewery. The majority shareholder is BCG WeizenGold Beteiligungs while the Industrial Development Corporation will have a 34 per cent share which will kick in after the construction of the plant. The fact that the R230 million deal has been signed by all the financing parties involved is a good indication of what can be expected in the near future," De la Porte told the local media. “The brewery will make use of highly sophisticated equipment, supplying jobs to about 30 people. But there will be quite a lot of spin-offs, like distribution, for instance, which will create an estimated 200 additional jobs,” he says. WeizenGold will be manufacturing a traditional German beer, which is brewed from at least 50 per cent wheat. “It is a draft beer and not made for mass consumption. We are in no way in competition with larger breweries,” he said. “We are obviously hoping for an export market, but we will be concentrating on the Eastern Cape for now.”