Recent growth
In 1977, the Murree Brewery suffered a significant setback when Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto imposed a total alcohol prohibition in Pakistan.[25] Subsequently, the government of President General Zia-ul-Haq amended this law, requiring anyone wishing to consume alcohol to present credentials demonstrating that they were non-Muslim. The small Christian, Hindu and Parsi communities were not large enough to support the enterprise, and production had to be scaled back.
However, gradual relaxation of the prohibition laws has allowed Murree to introduce variations of Murree beer, vodka, gin, and whisky. Today, all Murree products are readily available in legal liquor shops that operate openly in Karachi in places like Zamzama and Defence. It is also available in Sindh and Balochistan.
Murree Beer was initially being produced in Austria for European markets and was available in various Pakistani and Indian restaurants, an enterprise which has since ceased since 2004. The current CEO, Isphanyar Bhandara has announced plans to pursue co-brewing with Foster's, but this scheme is still in development.
The Murree Brewery is one of the oldest public companies of South Asia. Its shares were traded on the Calcutta Stock Exchange as early as 1902, and it is now the oldest continuing industrial enterprise of Pakistan and among the top 25 performing public companies on the Karachi Stock Exchange.
Murree's biggest competitor is the Quetta Distillery, and its products have to increasingly vie with smuggled brands from the West and India.[26]
On 6 June 2012, Scout Willis, the daughter of Hollywood actors Bruce Willis and Demi Moore, was arrested in New York City and jailed overnight for drinking a beer,[27] manufactured by Murree Brewery. This incident resulted in free publicity for the company via word-of-mouth marketing, leading in to line up various distributors in the USA and Dubai as part of its expansion plans.[25]
In 2013, Murree Brewery opened a franchise in India to a Bangalore-based entrepreneur, allowing the brewing, bottling and marketing of the beer in India.[28]
In September 2025, Murree Brewery was allowed to export beer for the first time since the 1970s. At first, we weren't sure that everything would go smoothly," explains the company's export manager, Ramiz Shah. In order to test the export procedure, the brewery shipped its first consignment of beer to the UK and then Portugal and Japan, with the goal of increasing its global sales to additional markets, such as the US and Canada.[29] Murree recorded its best year on record in 2025, surpassing $100 million in annual revenue, the first in its history.[30][31]
