Heineken Village:
launch-pad for young
Japanese artists
Eighty of Vrumona's colleagues
wanted to know all about PET
Half-year results Heineken N.V.
Heineken Japan has been actively engaged in the sponsor
ing of exhibitions recently. Modern art is attracting growing
attention amongst the younger generation of Japanese: and
that's a consumer group which our Tokyo office feels should
be introduced to Heineken beer. One new activity by Heine-
ken Japan involves the opening of Heineken Village in Tokyo,
covering an area of 1,500 square metres. The Village not only
has a bar and an outdoor beer garden, but also offers young
Japanese artists a venue to display their works.
Some eighty representa
tives of European soft drinks
plants and bottlers made the
trip to Bunnik (Holland) last
month to see for themselves
how the new plastic returna
ble bottle of Heineken's Vru
mona subsidiary is filled
with Pepsi Cola, Seven-Up
and Sisi. They were also told
more details about the mar
keting, engineering and tech
nological work that preceded
the introduction of the new
bottle.
New bottling line
In the first six months of
1989 a net profit of Fl.
140,388,000 was achieved.
This is an increase of 17.1%
on the Fl. 119,895,000
booked for the correspond
ing period of last year.
HEINEl
HEINEKEN INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE NR. 22
Heineken is not the only com- from those of the others because of
pany involved in art sponsoring in the great attention we focus on
Japan. But our activities do differ young artists. Some time ago Hei-
In small groups the colleagues of Vrumona were shown around the soft drinks plant, the main attraction obvi
ously being the bottling line for the plastic returnable bottle.
Present at the official opening of Heineken Village were (from left to
right): G.R. Habbershaw, Export Director, D.S. Enters, head of our
export office in Tokyo, his Singapore-based counterpart J.G.C.M.
Janssen, and Mr. Mukoyama, marketing manager of Heineken Japan.
Leen van Paridon, technologist
at Vrumona, recalls: "In recent
months we'd received very many
requests from colleagues for more
information. So we thought it
would be a good idea to hold an
open day. Everyone could then take
a look around our business and
learn how the plastic returnable
bottle was developed." General
manager R. Overgaauw, marketing
manager R. van Breemen, produc
tion manager G. Meijer and tech
nologist L. van Paridon explained
to the visitors the reasons for choos
ing the plastic returnable bottle.
R. Overgaauw made it clear why
the one-and-a-half-litre plastic
returnable bottle had been chosen.
"The one-and-a-half-litre size is an
excellent supplement to our range.
What's more, demand for bottles of
neken Japan started to sponsor up-
and-coming young artists by
refunding their costs of transport,
mailings, rental and other exhibi
tion expenses.
The experience gained from
these 'try-outs' has now been used
in the planning of the Heineken
Village. For instance, the bar and
the outdoor beer cafe are clearly
separated from the rooms where
the art works are on display and the
Heineken logos have not been used
too abundantly.
Heineken Village also contains
this size is growing. We opted for a
plastic because it is lightweight
and safer. We chose PET because
of our know-how and experience
of this material."
Production manager G. Meijer
gave information about the adapta
tions required in the bottling
department. During the bottle's
development stage the height and
diameter of the bottle were gov
erned by the possibilities of the
bottle rinsing machine and the
crate, because changing these
would have been very costly. In
April next year a new bottling line
for the one-litre bottle is due to
come into operation. This line
should be able to handle both the
glass bottle and the plastic bottle.
Research into the plastic returna
ble bottle has been under way for
several years.
guest rooms for foreign artists who
would love to spend a lengthier
period working in Japan but cannot
afford to because of a lack of
funds. They, too, have a chance of
Technologist L. van Paridon
explained which aspects had to be
studied in developing the bottle.
The main areas for study included
the cleaning conditions, stability
of the product, effect on taste,
Net sales increased by Fl. 426
million to Fl. 3,856 million. The
increase in sales was due to im
proved selling prices, a higher
sales volume and an increase in the
interests included in the consolida
tion. Improved selling prices were
exhibiting their works in Heineken
Village. The Village will remain
open until September 1990.
additives, labels and the quality of
the bottle after several return trips.
Marketing manager R. van
Breemen discussed the initial
results, three months after the
launch. Those results are optimis
tic. After a mere six weeks, for
instance, Pepsi Cola had already
achieved a market share of 3.1%
with the plastic returnable bottle,
and half of this was additional vol
ume. Sisi and Seven-Up also did
well. On the basis of extensive
research and in view of the initial
results, R. van Breemen said he
expected that the market share of
the one-way PET bottle would
decline in favour of the returnable
bottle. He also sees possibilities
for the one-litre size of plastic
returnable bottle. In the more dis
tant future he does not rule out PET
being replaced by other materials.
A Belgian colleague ofVrumona
expressed admiration for the step
taken by Vrumona and Pepsi Cola.
"For us it's a difficult choice to
make: investing in glass bottles or
in plastic returnable bottles. We
hope that the information we pick
up in Bunnik will make our choice
easier."
also achieved in the export opera
tions, whilst the good weather in
part of Europe gave a clear boost
to sales.
Operating expenses went up by
Fl. 404 million to Fl. 3,598 mil
lion. Once again, selling costs
showed a not inconsiderable rise as
a consequence of the vigorous
competition on the markets in
which we are active. Restructuring
costs were down compared to pre
vious years.
