Englishman finds 22-year-old
Heineken lager in desert
Tanks in jumbo jet
Heineken beer
to the rescue
Prizewinners in Amsterdam
When the Bralirwa brewery in Gisenyi (Rwanda)
needs four new tanks (holding 1,760 litres each), how
do you transport them? HTB's Central Purchasing
department was involved in this project and was given
the task of deciding on the most cost-efficient form of
transport for the job. In the end the choice came down in
favour of airfreight. At Orly Airport in Paris 425 cubic
metres of material weighing 70 tons was loaded into an
Air France jumbo jet at the end of July.
Two groups of 150 Span
iards visited Amsterdam and
the Heineken brewery in
Zoeterwoude last month.
They were the prizewinners
in a promotion organised ear
lier this year by El Aguila for
its customers as well as for
its own selling departments
and distributors. The prize
winners spent four days in
the Netherlands and visited
not only the brewery but also
well-known tourist attrac
tions.
In the United Kingdom some time ago American Express
was looking for the most surprising, exciting or dramatic
experiences of American Express cardholders. People with a
funny, exciting or sad story to tell could send it in and try to
win an attractive prize. Myra Shackley, a British archaeology
student, won second prize for her entry. In her adventure a
leading role was played by Heineken beer.
Englishman J.C. Gibbs
found some time ago that
Heineken beer even reaches
some very remote parts.
From November 1988 until
March 1989 he was working
in Libya as chief engineer for
a British company. During
that period the land was
caught up in some internal
troubles, which meant
Mr. Gibbs and his co
were often delayed by road
blocks. And so, to save some
time, they decided to take
more frequent short cuts
straight across the desert.
During one of those jour
neys, a few days before
Christmas, Mr. Gibbs made
an unusual find.
HEINEKEN INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE NR. 22
PAGE 6
The group of Spaniards who visited the Netherlands from 15 September, at the invitation of El Aguila.
Bar owners were able to com
pete for the main prize when they
bought in their Heineken beer.
With every order they received a
lottery ticket giving them a chance
to win a long weekend in Amster
dam. Representatives and distribu
tors could also try to win the main
prize. If they exceeded their sales
targets, they could look forward to
a weekend break in Amsterdam.
Myra Shackley got stranded in
the middle of the Gobi Desert
some years ago during her visit to
Mongolia. Her jeep wouldn't start
and her water stocks were reduced
to a minimum. Her interpreter and
the driver stayed with the jeep,
hoping that they'd be able to repair
the damage. Myra had a 20-kilo-
metre hike ahead of her, looking
for a lake, since the water canisters
were rapidly running dry. Sud
denly Myra remembered the extra
purchases she'd made in the tiny
village of Ulaanbataar. To her
amazement she had been able to
pay there with her American
Express card. She had bought a bar
of soap and... four cans of Heine
ken beer.
Two of the cans were left behind
for the interpreter and the driver
and Myra took the other two along
with her. She trekked all day
through the loose sand searching
for a settlement. Exhausted and
thirsty, Myra drank one beer that
evening. The next day the second
can of Heineken was also polished
off, but at last a human settlement
was in sight. It was deserted, as her
interpreter Bodsho had predicted,
but - contrary to what he had
thought - the well was dry. Walking
back to the jeep without water was
impossible, as was continuing her
trek towards the lake. A hopeless
situation, concluded the archaeol
ogy student.
But the story came to a happy
end after all. Bodsho and driver
Ganna (no doubt inspired by the
beer?) managed to get the jeep
going again, tracked Myra's
footsteps, and then all three of
them reached their destination
safely. After this precarious adven
ture Myra will certainly always
have a weak spot for Heineken
beer.
The tanks, manufactured in
France, were taken apart before
shipment. The required insulat
ing material came from Hol
land. At first the idea was con
sidered of sending the tanks in
one piece by ship to Zaïre. But
assume that the beer was perhaps
as old as seventeen years. He sent
in a crown cork plus a label to
Whitbread, our licensing partner in
the U.K. who passed on the evi
dence to the Netherlands for more
detailed research.
It was the type of crown cork
that gave the experts in Zoeter
woude some clue as to the beer's
age. The crown cork (with a natu
ral cork layer inside, covered by
the difference between the costs
of disassembly and air transport
compared to the difference in
the transport time (about 10
weeks) was so small that air
freight won the day.
It was a wooden crate with 24
bottles of Heineken beer. After dig
ging the crate out of the sand, the
group took it back to their hotel.
On New Year's Eve, being in a
party mood, they decided to cele
brate by sampling the contents. As
Mr. Gibbs recalls, "the beer was
drinkable but no longer had that
typical Heineken flavour". Close
scrutiny of the labels led him to
some aluminium) was replaced as
long ago as 1967(!) by a new ver
sion. Closer examination of the
label unfortunately brought no
further new facts to light. We'll
never know exactly how old the
Heineken beer was: but it's abso
lutely certain that it had reached
the ripe old age of 22!
