Nigerians love a Heineken brew -they can't get enough of it! mm KM 3b 14 The letter with the Nigerian postmark bore just three words: Happiness, Am sterdam, Holland. Dutch postal officials hesitated. But not for long. Someone soon recalled that "happiness" was the theme of a current advertising campaign. But whose cam paign...? Heineken! Who else! And that was how the first of the missives bearing that brief but entirely identifiable address came to rest on the doormat at Heineken's Amsterdam head office at 2de Weteringplantsoen on the Stadhou derskade. After an air journey of 3000 miles over land and sea. It was the first of many. The staff at We teringplantsoen long ago lost count. And just as remarkable as the brevity of the address and quick perception of the Post Office is the enthusiasm with which Nigerians have responded to Heineken beer. Not to mention of course the tremendous success of the slogan, "There's happiness in Heineken". A tribute from Nigeria is a tribute to be prized. Those familiar with the country agree that Nigerians, like the Dutch, know and appreciate a glass of good beer when they taste it. So it's not sur prising that this leader among Africa's emergent nations should present a tremendous market for Heineken. Or that Heineken activity there should be continuously increasing. The demand is in fact so heavy and growing so rapidly that the combined output of three breweries producing the Star brand in which Heineken has an in terest is insufficient to keep pace with it. Round the clock These breweries at Lagos, Kaduna and Aba are producing to the limit of their capacity with three shifts working round the clock. Production is being stepped up to the extent of an extra eight million cartons by the end of this year. Yet it will still fall short of demand by millions of cartons. The truth is that in the climate of Nigeria, and given the perceptive palate of the Nigerian, good beer is a fast selling ne- cessity and at the present time there is just not enough of it to go round. Heineken's first significant entry into the Nigerian market dates from 1946. Earlier on the country was almost exclusively the territory of German beers. But in the past 30 years the Heineken share has steadily grown. Heineken and the United African Com pany together are the major sharehold ers in Nigerian Breweries Ltd. Heineken is responsible for the technical aspect of beer production. The three breweries concerned are almost wholly devoted to making Star beer, which is of course brewed under Heineken supervision. In addition, substantial supplies of cans of Heineken beer have long been a sub stantial Nigerian import. The emphasis is on cans. Bottles are not permissible, for past experience has shown that they adversely affect the business of local glass factories. Bottles although it is obviously not practicable to redeem de posits by returning them to Holland are valuable local commodities. So all imported beer has to be canned. Cans or bottles it makes no difference to Heineken's Nigerian market. The sales curve goes up as fast as all the circumstances permit. One side effect of this is the flow of let ters to "Happiness". It's not clear what they're about? It shouldn't be difficult to guess.One clue:they're not complaints! Recently announced licence regulations have made the position regarding beer im ports uncertain as Contact goes to press. The situation may be clarified quite soon. Display preparations at a Heineken outlet. Préparatifs d'expositlon Heineken Heineken comes ashore. Heineken entre au port The brewery at Lagos. La brasserie de Lagos

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Heineken Contact | 1978 | | pagina 14