NewGuinean Beer
15
On the occasion of his visit to Amsterdam, Mr. S. Kokubu, sole
importer of Heineken beer in Japan, presented a miniature, silver-
plated replica of a work by the Japanese artist Yoshiynki Chosa, to
Mr. J. van der Werf, member of the Executive Board of Heineken
and to Mr. A. Ypma (centre), regional Export Manager
Australasia. The original was commissioned by Mr. Kokubu to
commemorate his firm's 270th anniversary.
This year Amstel Beer is being re-introduced on the Swedish market
and to that end an agreement was reached with the Warby Brewery
and a sales organization Saljbolaget.
The above photograph shows the signing of the contract in the
Heineken boardroom in Amsterdam.
From left to right standing:
A.P.H. van Heeringen, (Area Market Manager Amstel), G.
Burman (Managing Director Warby BreweryK. Brandt.
(Regional Export Manager).
Sitting from left to right:
A.A. Vellekoop, (Head Licensing Dept.), H. Holm (managing
director Saljbolaget), K. Lindfors (retired member of the board
Swedish KF Coorporation), A.H. Heineken, G. van Schaik,
I Member of Executive Board of Heineken
Mr. K.J. Webb, Group Marketing
Controller, South Pacific Brewery Limited
South Pacific Brewery Ltd. owns two
plants in Papua New Guinea and is one of
Heineken's 57 associated breweries. A
visit to Holland by its Group Marketing
Controller, Mr. Ken Webb, gave us a
chance to ask him how beer was sold in
that far away country with its 3'/2 million
inhabitants.
Selling beer is made more difficult than
usual there because of a ban on normal
advertising via the media. Only sales
promotions on the licensed premises are
permitted. This makes life pretty tough
for the advertising man because it often
means plain hard work: like organizing
raffle evenings with a tombola ticket free'
for each customer buying a beer. And
the prizes? Food parcels for the wives,
and they stay at home!
At such promotions private video shows
play a rather important part. Videotaped
instruction programmes on how to box
recorded when boxing champions
trained pupils are presented, alternated
by interviews with the champs about
their future plans, training methods and
so on, whilst occasionally a customer
may just be daring enough to walk on the
steely stomach of the best
Commonwealth boxer. Live Kung Fu
exhibitions are also brought to the bars.
South Pacific Brewery also livens up the
evenings by engaging a band which often
accompanies the audience in a rendering
of special SP songs in pidgin English, the
official language along with the Queen's
English. Having only two official
tongues is quite an achievement for a
country which has about 700 languages
and dialects.
Distribution is done by truck and small
ships and very rarely by air. Airfreight is
the only means, however, when it comes
to supplying the new Ok-tedi gold mine
project. No road leads there as yet, for it
is located in forbidding territory where
there are 345 days of rain a year.
South Pacific Brewery has plans to start
exporting soon. Distribution-wise this
should after all prove simpler than
delivering beer to some of the more
remote corners of Papua New Guinea,
and it will benefit the national economy
as well.
Enjoying an SP-beer
A Papua
Highlander
with SP-hat