African Beverage Brands Pivot to Culture, AI at New Pour Summit
African beverage leaders, investors, and creatives converged on Nairobi recently for The New Pour’, themed “Liquid Resilience: Future-Proofing Beverage Brands in Africa’s VUCA Markets.”
Broadcast across five African markets, the summit delivered a clear message: the future of beverages belongs to brands built with the African consumer at the center.
Convened by Co-Founder of Drinkabl Africa, Tosin Balogun, the summit mapped the journey of African beverage brands from idea to scale.
“The New Pour Summit is designed to bring together the thinkers, doers, and investors shaping the future of African beverages,” Balogun said. “We are moving from ideas to execution, building brands that start in Africa and scale globally. Investment follows clarity, and our goal is to bring absolute clarity to the African beverage ecosystem.”
A major highlight was the unveiling of The New Pour Report 2026, the inaugural industry intelligence report built on 10 trends and 15+ data sources. The report shows capital shifting toward Southern and Sub-Saharan Africa, driven by demographics, urbanization, and connectivity.
Key trends identified include situational consumption, authenticity and heritage, wellness and no/low alcohol, premiumization of local drinks, real-time data, and sustainable operations.
“Customers are becoming very situational. The same person can choose value, premium, wellness, or even abstinence on a given day of the week,” said Franklin Ozekhome, Pop Culture Varsity. “From return on investment, we must now start looking at return on culture.”
Founder of Open Squares Africa, Feyi Olubodun, introduced the “Villager Framework” to decode African consumers. “Africans are modernizing, but they are not westernizing. They are digital in behaviour, analog in identity and motivation,” he noted. His data showed that infusing culture into point-of-sale design can lift brand patronage by up to 65 per cent.
In masterclasses on real-time intelligence, Josiah Kimanzi of Actnable AI demonstrated how AI tools that use WhatsApp, SMS, and facial-expression analysis are replacing slow research. “If you’re old school, you’re using the stairs. AI is a lift,” he said. Panelists agreed that insight must move at the speed of business and evolve from descriptive to predictive.
On funding, Founder of Nyle, Kanessa Muluneh, and Founder of Handas Juice, Brian Kiriba, told founders that scalability, IP ownership, and story are now as important as financials.
“Story is everything, especially when it comes to beverages. In Africa, we don’t have enough beverage brands, by far,” Muluneh said.
“Productive naivety is being naive enough to ignore the odds, but wise enough to learn everything that gets in the way,” Kiriba added.
On the Glocal Case Study: From Manyatta to Millions, EABL’s Effie Thiongo and Ogilvy’s Maurice ‘Rizz’ Wangalachi broke down the success of Manyatta Cider. Built on the symbolism of the homestead’s “timeless flame,” the brand sold over 10 million bottles and generated double-digit USD million revenue.
“Taste like home is not geography. It’s that sense of familiarity, warmth, and connection,” Thiongo said. The identity was designed to “sit anywhere from a local pub to a global club.”
Tosin Balogun warned: “There’s no tired brand. There are only tired brand managers.” Leaders agreed that resilient brands balance planned strategy with emergent opportunities and adapt tactics while keeping long-term objectives fixed.
The New Pour Summit ’26 sets the agenda for 2026: build with culture, invest in real-time intelligence, and scale African innovation globally.
To access all the presentations and information about the summit, Balogun encouraged professionals, industry leaders, media, and students to visit https://newpour.drinkabl.media/recap.html
Sabina Manu of Guinness Breweries Ghana, said: “The brand says this is who I am, but the consumer now says it louder: no, this is who you are.”-
“Consistency built the big brands into resilient ones. For younger brands, you have to be more agile, adapting on a shorter cycle,” she added
Closing the summit, Hazem Kaddour, VML Morocco, said: “Crossing the strait is the final plan and won’t change. How you swim through a storm or against the current is what you adapt.”-
