(MONEY Magazine) – NEXT YEAR MARKS THE CENtennial of $6.7 billion South African Breweries, the nation's dominant beermaker and biggest consumer company with divisions in soft drinks (including a Coke franchise), fashion, furniture and hotels. But don't expect much fanfare from Meyer Kahn, 55, SAB executive chairman since 1990. His main interest in history is sustaining the stellar performance of SAB's stock. Over the past seven years, shareholders have enjoyed a heady 32% annual return driven by earnings compounding 21% a year. (Its ADR, lately $20, trades over the counter under the symbol sably.) Kahn provided insights into his company and customers in an interview at SAB's Johannesburg headquarters. Highlights:

Q. Why should Americans invest here? A. To make a lot of money, as SAB shareholders have, from our dynamic consumer market. A decade ago, South Africa had a population of 30 million. Just 10%, mostly 3 million of our 5 million whites, were American-style consumers with a house, cars and ample disposable income. Now that number has more than doubled to 7 million, or nearly 18% of today's 40 million, while the white population remains 5 million. We figure this consumer base can double again to about 15 million over the next 10 years or so.

Q. What will sustain this growth? A. Political stability, for one. Because of our history of boycotts and violence, we were forced to operate only 10 months each business year, on average, while our expenses ran for 12 months. So we could realize a 20% productivity gain just by getting back to work. Another big source of future business is sub-Saharan Africa, which has 400 million people. Most are very poor, with incomes a third of blacks' here. So we reckon this 400 million has the purchasing power of 100 million low-income South Africans. That's an enormous export market for our beer and soft drinks.

Q. How's the push north progressing? A. We're in Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe. We recently went into Tanzania at the government's invitation. Talk about potential. In South Africa, with 40 million people, we sell 23 million barrels of beer annually. In Tanzania, with 30 million, the brewing capacity was a mere 500,000 barrels.

Q. Why was SAB chosen over other brewers? A. Because South Africa is now politically acceptable. Plus we know more about Africa's developing consumer markets than anybody. The guys at Budweiser in St. Louis probably don't even know where Tanzania is. -- J.E.