Case Study: The South African Breweries achieves real-time cooler visibility and reduced downtime with Microsoft Power BI

AB InBev South Africa improves cooler management with Azure IoT Central

The South African Breweries, a subsidiary of AB InBev managing a fleet of more than 100,000 beverage coolers, faced rising losses, costly downtime and inefficient maintenance processes that required auditors to visit stores in person and left several thousand coolers unaccounted for each year. To get live, scalable insights without costly retrofits, they worked with partner Consumption Information Real Time (CIRT) and adopted an IoT approach using Azure IoT Central and analytics delivered via Microsoft Power BI.

CIRT deployed the Fridgeloc Connected Cooler solution on Azure IoT Central and surfaced cooler location, temperature and state in Microsoft Power BI dashboards, rolling out in weeks and running a 10‑month pilot. The system enabled remote audits, faster fault diagnosis, optimized cooler allocation and maintenance planning, cut downtime and reduced cooler loss that had previously numbered in the thousands annually, and set the stage for fewer technician trips and lower carbon emissions. Microsoft Power BI dashboards gave tailored views for managers and operators, accelerating data-driven decisions and scalability.

The South African Breweries

Sameer Jooma

Director Innovation and Analytics