[2] An earlier brewing company, known as SKD Brewery (Société des Khmere Distilleries) was commissioned by the Cambodian Government in the early 1960s and built by a French contractor with technical assistance from France.
The brewery building was designed by Cambodian architect Vann Molyvann during the 'golden period' of New Khmer Architecture.
Sihanoukville was chosen as the site for the brewery for the quality of the local water which supposedly had the ideal mineral content for brewing beer.
The choice of Sihanoukville was not without controversy at the time due to the distance from the bottle manufacturing plant near Phnom Penh.
In 1992 Cambrew entered into a joint venture with PepsiCo for bottling and distribution of soft drinks in Cambodia.