3.3
83
Greece
Athenian Brewery successful in Olympic year
45 Heineken N.V. Annual Report 2004 Report of the Executive Board Regional Review Western Europe
Successful focus on efficiency
The Customer Relationship Management approach, adopted by Heineken Italia at the end of 2002 has
clearly started to pay off. It helped boost the efficiency of the sales force and also made it possible to
track and measure the effectiveness of promotions, and profitability per outlet. Heineken Italy's overall
reorganisation plan is progressing well.
Wholesale
Heineken Italia's distribution unit Partesa, made some acquisitions in 2004 and reported higher sales
as a result. Partesa is evolving its business model, aiming at securing autonomous growth on the
one hand, and on the other supporting the development of our beers. The three pillars of this change
process are the reduction of working capital, the rationalisation of logistics and the streamlining
of procurement. IT improvements are ultimately aimed at aligning Partesa with the overall Heineken
group systems.
Total beer sales
million hectolitres
Market share
percent
Market position
position
The Heineken brand's three-year sponsorship of the
2004 Olympic Games in Greece helped Athenian Brewery
to maintain its position in the beer market as a whole,
which fell by 1%. This decline contrasts with relatively
robust Greek economic growth of 4% and largely reflects
a drop in tourist numbers. Athenian Breweries' share of the
market remained more or less stable at 83%.
As elsewhere in Europe, the volume decline was greater in the on-trade, with price increases having a
mitigating effect on demand. Athenian Breweries overall beer sales volumes declined from 3.4 million
hectolitres to 3.3 million hectolitres.
Prices of beer and mineral water were raised in line with inflation and the price discounting seen
elsewhere in Europe in the off-trade has not yet hit the country. This partly reflects the fact that Greek
consumers have been enjoying wage increases in line with inflation at around 3.5% However,
continuing consolidation in the off trade, as well as the entry of multinational discounters point to
increased competition in the future.
These factors combined produces a decrease in operating result for the year.