Export still offers
a world of opportunities'
G.R. Habbershaw, new Heineken Export director:
18
Since September a Yorkshireman has been
speeding on his way to the office in Amster
dam. Nothing unusual? But it is for the
man in question. In fact he covers the dis
tance between his home (on the city's ring
of canals) and his work by bike, that typi
cally Dutch way of getting about. For a
person not born in Holland and one who's
also spent the past few years living in the
United States (where they even take the
car to go for a walk!), that bike is something
unusual. The man we're talking about is
Mr. Rodney Habbershaw. For the past six
months he has been in charge of the Heine-
ken export department: Heineken's trading
house.
The department is primarily re
sponsible for exports of the cor
porate brands Heineken, Amstel,
Buckler and Murphy's Stout. Besides
this, the department can in principle
also be called in to help export the
brands of our operating companies:
Aguila, Dreher, Bintang, etc.
The lion's share of the export beer
is brewed by the Dutch operating com
pany Heineken Nederland. Our brewery
in Singapore fulfils this same role for
a limited number of markets in the Far
East. But this is more an exception than
a rule.
That the Dutch breweries are the
leading export breweries is obviously
not due solely to the fact that the Heine
ken concern has its roots in the Nether
lands. An important reason is the specif
ic ability of the Dutch breweries to han
dle a large number of different pack
forms. And, of course, the position of
the port of Rotterdam - a focal point of
many world shipping routes - also plays
an important role.
Excellent
Mr. Habbershaw started his Heine
ken career as marketing manager
Europe. He was closely involved in the
acquisition of Dreher in Italy, which
meant that he had to move house with
his wife and three children to Milan.
After the Italian adventure Mr. Habber
shaw became managing director of the
Heineken affiliate companies National
Brewing Company, in TVinidad, and the
Windward Leeward Brewery on St.
Lucia.
Before Mr. Habbershaw accepted
the post of Export Director he was re
gional coordinating director for North
America and the Caribbean. His respon
sibilities included supervising Heine-
ken's local operations on behalf of the
Board of Directors and maintaining the
contacts with Van Munching Co., the
importer of Heineken and Amstel Light
in the United States. Mr. Habbershaw
has great admiration for the U.S. impor
ter: 'It's an excellent organisation which
works very hard for Heineken, knows
the market better than anyone else and
puts in a maximum effort to consolidate
the position of our products. They've
built up a wealth of experience and have
coupled that to their great dedication to
Heineken.'
Ideas
The new director has tackled this
fresh challenge with zest and he has
clear-cut ideas about exports. 'We have
to devote more attention to marketing
and distribution. We've got top quality
products and a strong position in the
market. Our competitive edge is formed
by our excellent distribution. Our distri
bution network is our biggest single
asset, besides the Heineken and Amstel
brands. That's where our strength lies
and that's where we have to expand.'
'I also believe we need to introduce
more creativeness into the export oper
ation. Heineken was one of the first brew
eries to develop export activities and
to make use at a comparatively early
stage of what were - for those days -
modern marketing techniques to build
up its brands. Though we still benefit a
great deal today from that early start,
the situation on most of the world beer
markets has changed considerably. On
the one hand competition has increased
world-wide, whilst beer markets have
become more dynamic on the other.'
'Even if we disregard economic and
social changes, we can see that the pace
THE WORLD OF HEINEKEN