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

Jaarverslagen en Personeelsbladen Heineken

World of Heineken | 1989 | | pagina 18