New stand for
Heineken Japan
A.H. Heineken set up three foundations
Vrumona sets sights on exports
"Vrumona has essentially always been seen as a purely
domestic Dutch business. But those times have changed. In
recent years we have also focused strongly on international
markets". Mr. S. Hiemstra works as Export Manager within
the Heineken export organisation, but he reports to the
Managing Director of Heineken's Vrumona soft drinks
company, based in Bunnik, Holland. Today, Vrumona's soft
drinks are exported to some ninety countries all over the
globe.
Exports of soft drinks started on a cautiously small scale in
1981. As the number of hectolitres destined for foreign mar
kets showed rapid growth, Heineken's export organisation
was asked to provide some of its specialist know-how.
Together with several Vrumona staff a plan was drawn up to
structure the company's export drive.
Combination
Future
Dutch house-fronts in Tokyo
Compliments
PAGE8HEINEKEN INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE NR. 14
Soft drinks growing
in importance
"Exports of soft drinks boomed.
Within a couple of years we were
exporting an annual volume of
300,000 hectolitres. But a sudden
upswing like that often knocks
things out of balance and that was
the problem we faced as well. More
than half of our soft drinks sales
(mainly Pepsi Cola) were shipped
to the Middle East. We benefited
from the shortage of bottling capac
ity in that region. But, once those
Middle East capacity shortages had
been solved and after the most im
portant customer, Saudi Arabia,
closed its borders to imports of
bottled soft drinks, we found that
we had lost more than half our sales
volume", explains Mr. Hiemstra.
The 100,000 hectolitres of soft
drink exports which then remained
were characterised by a wide diver
sity of products and packs, which
brought extra production costs. An
organisational consultancy bureau
looked into the problem. One of
the suggestions it made was to dis
continue half of all the pack vari
eties.
Besides this, a strategic rethink
had been started at Vrumona to
study which world markets the
company could supply with success.
It was decided to make greater use
than previously of the Heineken
export organisation so as to identify
new customers in new markets.
"Soft drinks and beer are not so far
apart as you might imagine. In
many countries a brewery and a
lemonade plant form a first-rate
combination", says Mr. Hiemstra,
whose task is to keep Heineken's
export managers informed about
how soft drinks can be included in
their sales packageHis responsibil
ities also cover regular exports to
countries in Western Europe and
conducting worldwide negotiations
on contract packing. The soft
drinks export department forms the
link between the Heineken export
organisation and Vrumona and
concentrates on mapping out the
policy for the years ahead.
That future is viewed with confi
dence by Mr. Hiemstra. At the
present time 3 million hectolitres of
soft drinks are exported annually
from Holland. The bulk of them go
to Holland's neighbouring coun
tries. For the time being Vrumona
Mr. S. Hiemstra, soft drinks export manager, holds the special can designed
for in-flight catering. Successes are being achieved in this market segment,
too.
has opted to operate only on a mod
est scale on these highly competi
tive markets. But, as regards ex
ports to other countries throughout
the world, Vrumona's market
share is almost fifty per cent, mak
ing it a force to be reckoned with
amongst soft drinks exporters.
One particularly important form
of exporting is the contract packing
of soft drinks. Vrumona now han
dles the canning of soft drinks for
several Caribbean countries. Coun
tries in which Heineken's affiliated
companies have a bottling line, but
no canning line.
Though time-consuming and
costly, the export organisation still
works out cheaper than installing a
canning line, which requires a siz
able capital outlay. Mr. Hiemstra
can see good prospects for this
trend in which Vrumona acts as a
contract packer. "Within the Pepsi
Cola organisation we have incre
asingly built up a profile as a con
tract packer, and that policy is now
bearing fruit."
Isn't there a risk that, if you lose a
big customer, you'll some day find
yourself faced with a problem of
surplus capacity again?
"We're well aware of that dan
ger. Our defence against it is to
keep on concluding contracts all
over the world and to present our
selves as a reliable partner for con
tract packing. If you lose a major
customer, you make a very delib
erate search to find orders to com
pensate for that loss. But we take a
critical look at the contracts we
select, for our main aim is of course
to make a profit", concludes Mr.
Hiemstra.
Centre: Mr. S. Enters of Heineken Japan talks to one of the visitors. Far
right: two representatives ofKirin, the brewery which brews Heineken beer
under licence for the Japanese market.
Heineken was one of the 28
Dutch companies which exhibited
at the 'Hoteres and Foodex Japan'
held in the Tokyo World Trade
Center from 5 to 8 March this year.
This exhibition, Japan's leading
trade fair for the food and drinks in
dustryis comparable to Bibe Inter-
food in Genua, the Alimentaria in
Barcelona, Sial in Paris and the Ho
reca va in Amsterdam. Heineken
Japan this year presented itself in a
brand-new stand. Visitors thought
the stand was both unusual and wel
coming. Mr. H. van Hoogdalem of
the Standbuilding department of
Heineken Advertising Service was
closely involved in designing the
stand.
"Last year's stand was basically
one big café. The Japanese, we no
ticed, were a little hesitant about
crossing the threshold. They were a
bit shy of stepping inside. Which is
why we decided to design the new
stand as a small bar of about 24
square metres with a big outdoor
pavement café", explains Mr. Van
Hoogdalem.
Mr. S. Enters of Heineken Japan
came up with the initial idea for the
construction of a new stand whose
first public showing was to be at the
Hoteres and Foodex '88. Mr. Van
Hoogdalem went to the drawing
board and designed a stand cover
ing an area of 108 square metres
and closely resembling the large
stand used by Heineken at the
Dutch Horecava trade fair until last
year. The stand consists of five dif
ferent houses with typical Dutch fa
cades, a small bar and a pavement
café.
The Heineken stand certainly has
an eye-catching design. "Stand-
building in Japan is very business
like, functional and austere. That
also applied to the stands of the
other Dutch participants who had
jointly had their stands constructed
in Japan. The Heineken stand was
designed and prefabricated in Hol
land. The parts were then shipped
out to Japan. During the trade fair
we were complimented many times
on our stand, both by visitors and
by our Dutch colleagues."
What will happen to the stand
now? "Even before the parts were
shipped out to Japan, detailed
structural drawings were sent to the
Japanese stand-builders so that
they had proper instructions on its
method of assembly. The plans are
to use this stand a few more times at
shows and exhibitions during the
coming year. After that we'll be
looking for a more permanent site
for it."
Over the past years Mr. A.H. Heineken has set
up several foundations whose objects are to pro
vide support for social and scientific develop
ments. At the end of 1979 the Amsterdam Art
Foundation was formed, followed in June 1983 by
the Amsterdam Foundation for Medicine and the
Amsterdam Foundation for Historical Science.
To date these three foundations have led a com
paratively unpublicised existence. The build-up of
their capital funds was given a higher priority.
Meanwhile each foundation has a capital of two
million guilders. The capital of the foundations is
administered by the Alfred Heineken Funds
Foundation. Mr. A.H. Heineken is chairman of
the board of all foundations.
Starting next year, the Amsterdam Foundation
for Medicine will award the Alfred H. Heineken
Prize for Medicine (worth 150,000 guilders) to one
or more persons who have performed pioneering
research work in the area of medical science. The
Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences will select the
prizewinners.
Young artists with promising talents who live
and work in the Netherlands have a chance to win
the Alfred H. Heineken Prize for the Arts. This
50,000-guilder prize is awarded annually in one of
the following categories: visual arts, ballet and
theatre, music, or photo/film/video. The end of
September will see the awarding of the first Hei
neken Arts Prize in the visual arts category.
The Amsterdam Foundation for Historical
Science will over the next few years dedicate its
efforts to a history project for young people which
is aimed at strengthening the idea of European
unity. The foundation is currently holding talks
with several leading historians about the realisa
tion of this project.
The three foundations are separate from the Dr.
H.P. Heineken Foundation. This foundation's
capital, whose income is used to finance the Dr.
H.P. Heineken Prize, was provided by Heineken
N.V.
