1933-1958
Twenty-Five Years Of Heineken s History
In The U.S.A.
By Leo van Munching, President
The story of Heineken's Imported Hol
land Beer in the United States is a success
story in many ways. It began back in 1932
in Holland where rumblings were heard
of the possibility of the ending of the
Prohibition era in the United States. As
could be expected, this situation was
closely followed at the Heineken's Brew
ery because if Repeal of the Volstead Act
would be passed, it would open this great
country across the sea as a new export
market for Heineken's Beer.
It was many years before that Heine
ken's had been shipped to the United
States, up to 1917, when it was imported
by the same firm who owned and operated
Luchow's famous restaurant at 14th Street.
Unfortunately, the enactment of Prohibi
tion brought an abrupt end to that.
There was a great interest at Heine
ken's to ascertain possibilities for export
of Heineken's Beer to the United States
as soon as Repeal became effective. The
first shipment of Heineken's to the United
States was made on board the steamer
STATENDAM which arrived the day Re
peal became official and consisted of 30
cases and 25/Vi barrels of 3.2% (alco
holic strength
On September 11, 1933, I was selected
by the Managing Directors and the Ex
port Manager of Heineken's to be sent as
a special representative to the United
States to make a survey on behalf of the
Brewery to see what could be done, in
view of the fact, that before long, full
strength export beer could be shipped to
this country.
My family and I arrived in the United
States in December, 1933, to begin the
survey and what turned out to be the be
ginning of a long and hectic career, with
many obstacles especially in the early
stages. The first few years were really
very difficult because of many reasons in
cluding the fact that the Heineken's brand
name was unknown in this country and
economic conditions in general.
However, the fame of Heineken's really
came into it own when, under my guid
ance, a restaurant "Heineken's on the
Zuider Zee" was opened at the New York
World's Fair in 1939. In this quaint
Dutch tavern which featured Heineken's
on draught, very many new Heineken's
drinkers were made. In fact, our draught
beer was so enthusiastically received, that
some times we had trouble supplying suf
ficient barrels to quench the thirst of the
new Heineken's friends!
The reopening of the New York
World's Fair in 1940 was looked forward
to with much anticipation but unfortun
ately, World War II and the invasion of
Holland cut off further supplies of Hein
eken's. Shortly after the outbreak of war
in Holland, I conceived the idea of com
municating with the Heineken's Brewery
in Java, Indonesia, and we were success
ful in convincing the management there
to send supplies all the way from the Far
East to preserve the goodwill for the name
which had been established in the Ameri
can market.
One can realize what a terrible blow
this was to me and my staff and little did
we know how long it would take until
new shipments of Heineken's would ar
rive again in this country.
The introduction of Heineken's Beer
in the United States market was not purely
and simply the result of building an at
tractive restaurant at the World's Fair.
It was much more than that! It was the
conscientious application of sales methods,
word-of-mouth advertising and a tremen
dous amount of hard work by everyone
connected with our organization. We had
been successful in obtaining excellent dis
tributors and they helped greatly to estab
lish the brand name in the New York,
Chicago and California markets. Little
did we know at the time how many more
and bigger problems were ahead of us!
When the time came again in 1946
when shipments of Heineken's from Hol
land to the United States could be re
sumed, we organized Van Munching
Co., Inc., to go back to work and rebuild
the Heineken's brand to its former glory.
It was gratifying indeed that many
of our former wholesalers were eagerly
awaiting the first shipments and it was
quite a problem for the Brewery, although
not actually damaged by war, but not al
together in condition to immediately re
sume shipments of supplies to the United
States and other markets.
Our new company was sometimes un
able to fill every order from whole
salers during this first year. There were
a great number of obstacles to overcome
such as scarcity of beer bottles, crown
corks, cartons, etc. It was a long time
before the normal way of doing business
had returned and when we were able to
use the regular non-returnable bottles as
we have today.
Slowly but surely, from year to year,
our national sales expanded and so did
our organization so that now, we have
sales offices in Chicago, Illinois, Beverly
Hills, California and Miami, Florida, in
addition to our main offices in New York>
City. Each year we showed a substantial
increase in sales and stayed far ahead of
importations of other brands of beer
which is quite an accomplishment.
We here at the Van Munching organi
zation look forward with confidence to
the future. We know that Heineken's has
been a pace-setter and that with the tre
mendous influx of imported beers in the
United States, we have earned our place
in the American market which we intend
to hold and solidify. This, our 25th anni
versary year in this country, will show
larger volume than ever before. We are
proud of our national sales and there are
only three states in the entire United
States where Heineken's is not available
and that is due to state regulations which
make it impossible for us to sell.
I am grateful for the opportunity that
I was given back in 1933 and I am very
happy in the knowledge that the result
has been very rewarding to the Heine
ken's Bierbrouwerij Maatschappij and our
ever-growing American sales organiza
tion.
