Celtia beer

From an ice factory to a brewery

The company behind Celtia began on 25 November 1889 with the production of ice. In his 2021 history of the beer, the French author Paul Nicolas traces it to a small ice factory on rue d’Espagne, near the central market of Tunis, set up by a young engineer from Luxembourg, Joseph Baldauff; brewing came later, at Bab Saadoun. The firm was long called the Société frigorifique et brasserie de Tunis, and only in 2012, when it had long since stopped making ice, did it take its present name, keeping the initials SFBT.

According to Webdo, before Celtia the beers most often found in Tunisia were foreign brands: Tuborg, which had the largest share, the Belgian Pils, Peroni and Moretti for the Italian community, Cisk from Malta, a dark British beer called Jubol and the French Champigneulles.

Celtia, 1951

SFBT launched Celtia in 1951, aiming, according to Wikipedia, at the market for luxury beer, and Nicolas credits Robert Palomba, who led the company for three decades until 1979, with its creation. Wikipedia describes it as a bottom-fermented blond beer of the Pilsner type, with an alcohol content of 5%, and it has been brewed at the company’s Bab Saadoun brewery in Tunis since the start.

The packaging pairs red and white, and the name, in gothic letters, sits above the words “bière de luxe”. In 2014, for the company’s own 125th anniversary, SFBT kept that logo, with its original gothic letters, on a limited-edition collector’s can.

In Tunisia today

Webdo wrote in 2018 that Celtia, with its stablemate Stella, has led the Tunisian market since its launch, while competing with newer arrivals such as Heineken and Beck’s. Alcohol is legal in Tunisia, but its sale is restricted: Business News noted in 2010 that sales are banned during the holy month of Ramadan.

The brand has grown beyond the original lager. By 2010 SFBT also sold an alcohol-free Celtia, and that April Business News reported its chief executive, Hamadi Bousbia, as saying that Libyans were especially fond of it. In 2019 the company added Legend by Celtia, an India pale ale made with five varieties of hops, which Managers presented as the first IPA brewed in Tunisia.

Webdo reported in 2023 that the French Castel group had become SFBT’s main shareholder, with 63% of its capital. In Emblem World, Celtia sits in the Tunisia drink collection, where people discover and rate local food, drink and music.