An old Heineken friend
Amsterdam recently welcomed a very
special guest: Mr. John Hunt.
Accompanied by his wife, Mr. Hunt was
paying a farewell round of visits to his
many friends throughout the world before
retiring at age 63 from his post as Director
of the Brewing Division of the United
Africa Company.
Since 1953 he has been closely involved
with that company's brewery activities in
Africa and he helped Heineken take its
initial steps in that continent, in Nigeria.
John Hunt saw all that country's breweries
being built up, for the business there has
been a story of continuing success, despite
the setbacks that characterized the initial
period and the problems which, of course,
still crop up today. Heineken helped
construct the production units, and John
Hunt is full of praise about the splendid
work done by HTB (Heineken Technical/
Technological Service Unit) in Nigeria
over the years and about its crowning
achievement a few months ago, the
completion of the brewery in Ibadan.
With an initial capacity of 1.1 million
hectolitres and located on a site of some 80
hectares, the Ibadan brewery came on
stream this year.
As he has always been involved in the
commercial side of the business, John
Hunt can recount many a tale about the
uphill battle, particularly in the 1960s, to
boost the sales of the locally produced Star
and Gulder beers and also sales of
imported Heineken before it was brewed
locally. Nowadays marketing has become
almost an exact science, but in those years
the right decisions were based more on a
good nose for business. In the late 'fifties it
was certainly an excellent publicity stunt
to send up an inflatable Star beer bottle - a
balloon 31 metres long and 9 metres in
diameter - to advertise the brand in the sky
above Lagos. But who would ever have
expected the competitors to bring that
balloon back down to earth, only a few
weeks later, with four well-aimed rifle
shots? And, as a further example of the
competitors' underhand tactics in those
years: the representatives from the
competitors who bought in twenty cartons
of Star beer, unpacked them and left the
bottles to stand in the sun for a day. Then,
certain that the beer had been completely
spoilt by the hot tropical sun, they put
them back on sale again. What answer is
there to business practices like that?
In spite of such contretemps, John Hunt
still believes "It's been great fun and it was
always a pleasure to work together with
Heineken". Does he plan to stop working
now? Definitely not. Although he will
have to turn his back on the brewing
world, he feels he still needs hard work to
keep him on his toes. He also thinks he will
always need something to occupy his
mind, something to keep him young at
heart.
So he will therefore be taking up one,
perhaps two part-time posts in the
educational field. There, too, he will no
doubt be able to put his philosophy into
practice: "You must only be serious to a
certain degree, as you mustn't be afraid to
have a good laugh once in a while".
We wish John Hunt many more years of
laughter.
John Hunt (Divisional Managing Director,
Brewery Holdings and Services Division of
United African Company Ltd.) (left) and his
wife say their farewells to J. v. d. Werf (Heineken
Executieve Board member).
John Hunt takes on the role of temporary
captain on an excursion boat touring the
Amsterdam canals.
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