Samoa Breweries is the main brewer in Samoa. It brews a German type lager beer, called Vailima after a village in Samoa. It was purchased by the Foster's Group in 1999; Foster's was acquired by SABMiller in 2011 and sold its Fiji and Samoa operations to Coca-Cola Amatil.
"Vailima" is literally translated from the Samoan as "water in hand" and has its origin in a Samoan folktale in which a woman revives her dying lover by carrying water to him in her hands.
Samoa Breweries also bottles Coca-Cola and allied soft-drink brands under licence. Annual production is approximately 8,500,000 litres of beer (85,000hL) and 6,500,000 litres of soft-drinks. The majority of beer produced is for the domestic market. Exports amount to about 12% with American Samoa, New Zealand and the Cook Islands being the main export markets