HTB: 25 years advising affiliate breweries
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Every employee of Heineken s operating companies will
have heard of Heineken Technisch Beheer at some time or
will have read the name somewhere. But what does HTB do
exactly? Is it a group of technical boffins poring over their
drawing boards to develop one spectacular feat of engineer
ing after the other? Mr. C. Scheltema, head of HTB for the
past three years, puts that description into perspective: "We
are here in the first place to give advice to around one
hundred breweries. And, yes, sometimes we do make dis
coveries."
Strong points
Training courses
Flexibility
HEINEKEN INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE NO. 19 PAGE 5
"Sometimes we make discoveries"
cooperates closely with other en
gineering bureaus so that it can re
spond alertly to peaks in the work
load. Its full-time employees are
deployed on activities which have
a permanent character.
Mr. Scheltema realises that
HTB does not always have an
equally favourable image amongst
the operating companies. "They
sometimes look at us suspiciously
because we occasionally create the
impression that we always know
best. That's a pity, but there is an
element of truth in it. We tend to
forget that there is often a great
deal of know-how present locally.
We should make more allowance
for that. HTB is a service organisa
tion which owes its existence and
livelihood to the operating com
panies. In recent years we have
been doing a lot to make all HTB
staff fully aware of this fact of life.
In that way their service-oriented
attitude will be improved."
On the other hand HTB is great
ly appreciated because of the qual
ity of its work and is regarded as
efficient, innovative, honest and
customer-oriented. All these as
pects are essential for the success
of an organisation, also for an 'in
ternal' operation like HTB. Inter
nal because HTB provides assis
tance and advice abroad only to
breweries which have a link with
Heineken, either in the form of a
participation or in the form of a
licensing partner.
In brief: the crucial element is
working together, now and in the
future.
HTB has five major activities:
research and development; advice
to breweries; construction and
modernisation of breweries; pur
chasing (with a budget of up to
some 1 billion guilders a year);
and the training courses depart
ment, which has been growing
steadily more important in recent
years. In total fifty different spe
cialisations are represented within
HTB, distributed between 435 em
ployees.
"All the technical and technolog
ical know-how of the business is
collected and stored within HTB.
Practical applicability and infor
mation exchange are HTB's strong
points. The know-how we gain in
brewery A will perhaps be used in
due course for activities in brew
ery B. Formerly HTB's know-how
was transferred one way: from the
Netherlands to the other brewer
ies. Nowadays we can see that
knowledge built up elsewhere is
also put to practical use in Europe",
says the present director of HTB
The very latest equipment is used to develop new systems.
One HTB division of increasing
significance in recent years is that
for training courses (see elsewhere
in this issue). In organising such
sessions as seminars for brewers
and engineers from operating com
panies and the 'train the trainer'
programme. HTB receives some
250 foreign guests in Zoeterwoude
each year.
Another major role of HTB is to
serve as a sort of 'nursery school'
for new employees. The-organisa
tion takes on many young
graduates from universities and
polytechnics. Many of them spend
a few years working for HTB and
then leave the organisation to be
sent out by Heineken International
to a posting in another country.
Several years later, having gained
both technical know-how and prac
tical experience, they can return to
HTB to take up, say, a consultancy
post.
There was a time when HTB
built two breweries a year on aver
age. That number has meanwhile
fallen to one every two years. This
decrease in building activities is
closely linked to the way in which
the concern is expanding its inter
ests. Instead of building our own
breweries, the emphasis today is
on acquisition or participation.
Renovation and extension of bre
weries have replaced the new
building activities. Moreover,
HTB is dealing more and more
with automation and product varia
tion. Because of all these factors,
improved communication with the
brewery management is essential.
HTB's order portfolio is there
fore dependent on developments
within the concern. The organisa
tion has to respond to sharp fluctu
ations in the supply of work. HTB
Research (as in this quality control laboratory) is an important job for
HTB.
HTB was founded in 1963. In
the period before its establish
ment. breweries had been acquired
in other countries. More and more
often, those breweries asked
Heineken to advise them in the
area of (brewing) technology.
Heineken Technisch Beheer was
set up to ensure that such advice
could be efficiently supplied.
Over the past 25 years HTB has
grown faster than the rest of the
Heineken organisation. The
number of specialists increased
each year. At present half of the
total number of HTB employees
are university graduates or have
had a higher vocational edcuation.
Expansion project at the El Aguila brewery, Valencia.
