Report
Of the Report of the Chairman Heineken can look
back on a good year. Sales of beer brewed under
Heineken's supervision rose by 4.4% to 73.8
million hectolitres. This means that around
56,000 glasses of beer brewed by us are
Executive consumed every minute around the world.
Almost all operating companies posted improved
results. The acquisitions realized in 1996 made a
higher than expected positive contribution to
profit in 1997. Once again the power and vitality
Board of the Heineken brand made their mark. This was
evidenced in higher sales of Heineken beer.
In general this enabled us to realize an improved
sales-mix. Also good news was that we achieved
lower costs for raw materials and packaging
materials. The financial and economic crisis in
Asia only had a limited negative impact on the
Group. In conclusion, our net turnover rose by
11% to NLG 13.5 billion. Net profit increased from
NLG 655 million to NLG761 million.
In 1997 we further reinforced our position
in Europe and Africa with new acquisitions.
In Slovakia we acquired a 49% interest in the
Karsay brewing and malting operation.
Brewinvest, a partnership between our Greek
subsidiary Athenian Brewery and Hellenic
Bottling Company, acquired a 60.2% interest in
Ariana Brewery in Bulgaria. In Ghana Heineken
acquired a 90% interest in ABC Brewery in Accra.
At the start of 1998 we increased our interest in
the Zywiec brewery in Poland from 31.8% to
50.0%.
Developments on the world beer market are
encouraging. We expect that the world beer
market could well increase from 1,280 million
hectolitres (1996) to an estimated 1,800 million
hectolitres in the year 2010. This means a per
capita increase in consumption from the present
23 litres to almost 26 litres. China will account
The turnover of Heineken N.V. rose by 11% in 13
Net profit N
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