Irish lager market is saturated
HEINEKEN INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE NR. 27 PAGE 7
Amstel sales stop definitive:
Logical
Promotions
Just outside the city of Casablan
ca lies the new brewery of Brass
eries du Maroc S.A., our licensing
partner in Morocco. On a site
alongside the lemonade factory of
Brasseries du Maroc this new
building project was realised to re
place an outdated brewery in the
city centre of Casablanca. The tech
nical input was provided by
Heineken Technical Services
(HTB).
Mr M.H. de Jong, HTB project
leader for the new brewery: 'In
1987 the first plans were drawn up.
In May this year the brewery came
on stream. In every project you
have to overcome some obstacles
Amstel hasn't made it on the
Irish market. Almost two years
after its introduction the brand
has had to be taken off the mar
ket by Murphy's Brewery. The
reason: with sixteen different
brands on sale, the Irish lager
market is saturated.
The management reached this
decision following a study of the
financial budget for marketing
activities. Their conclusion was
that the marketing funds would
be better spent on promoting the
Murphy's Irish Stout, Heineken
and Buckler brands.
At the time of Amstel's Irish
launch the then general manager
said he expected that the beer
market in Ireland would soon be
showing a drastic change: greater
segmentation would occur. And
Amstel would be able to play a
significant role in the main
stream segment. Aemon O'Sul-
livan, brand manager at Mur
phy's, about that prediction: 'On
the basis of the information we
had at the time, that expectation
was logical. But that segmenta
tion did not materialise. An
other thing we hadn't expected
was that the small brands would
remain in the market, even
though they can never be prof
itable. All things considered, sin
ce the introduction of Heineken
beer there's been no new lager
which has met with success.'
The financial resources now
released will be used above all
for promotions to increase the
sales of Murphy's Stout in Dub
lin. Murphy's Stout is finding
new friends fast in the capital
city and the brewery intends to
boost that popularity further by
promoting the brand more. As
regards Heineken and Buckler,
the additional funds will be used
to give an extra boost to the im
age of both products via spon
sorships.
and special circumstances. The
typical feature of this assignment
was that we had a relatively limited
amount of space available. This lo
cation had been chosen because it's
sited right next to the lemonade
factory of Brasseries du Maroc
where beer is also filled. Until re
cently the beer had to be carried by
road tanker from the brewery to the
bottling department in the
lemonade factory. Another prob
lem was that the ground is very
rocky. The foundations for the
malt receipt building and the con
struction of the underground water
cellar therefore involved a great
deal of hard labour.'
With a production capacity of
500,000 hectolitres the brewery in
Casablanca is the biggest and most
modern of the three breweries of
Brasseries du Maroc. The brewery
has its own water treatment plant
which operates on the principle of
reverse osmosis.
The main brands brewed there
are Stork, Flag and Flag Special.
The production of Heineken beer
under licence has also been trans
ferred to from the brewery in Fez to
this new brewery. In the near future
Heineken beer will not only be bot
tled but will also be filled into cans
there. Heineken has been working
together with Brasseries du Maroc
for some ten years now. Heineken
beer brewed under licence cur
rently holds a share of some 5-6%
of the market. Volume is still mov
ing upwards and the emergent tour
ist industry in Morocco will cer
tainly give it a further boost.
The brewhouse is decorated with
typical Moroccan mural paintings,
for which this sketch served as a
draft.
