COLD ÖÊËRS One of the liquor stores in Papua New Guinea, known as 'bottle shops'. A special department at South Pacific Brewery makes sure that such shops are kept painted the SP colours. 36 again found itself confronted by competing breweries. A Japanese brewery produced its beer for scarcely a year before it had to close down for good. In 1973 the coope ration between the San Miguel and Swan breweries led to the building of a brewery. Two years later Swan's stake was taken over by San Miguel. In 1983 San Miguel in its turn was acquired by South Pacific Brewery. Copper mines Even with the additional capacity of the brewery in Lae, South Pacific Brew ery was hardly able to meet the growing demand in the second half of the 'six ties. But in the early 'seventies sales started to tail off. The interest for im ported beers grew at the expense of the local SP beer. More than anything, it was the discovery of enormous copper deposits at Bougainville which had a major influence on beer consumption, however strange this may sound. Recognising the great economic sig nificance of the copper mines, Papua New Guinea initiated a vast industrial project. Roads and a big seaport were built and even a complete new town rose up near the mines. Large numbers of foreigners brought their experience and expertise to Bougainville to work on the project. Besides their expertise, the foreigners also brought containers full of foods and drinks: fruit, meat, vegeta bles and... Australian beer. A network was set up to ensure that the foreign workers were supplied with their 'own' familiar foods and drinks. SP beer wins through Bougainville is crucial for the econ omy of Papua New Guinea and it looked as if South Pacific Brewery was going to miss the boat. This situation worried the brewery management and every ef fort was made to get SP beer on the Bougainville market. South Pacific Brewery could not gain a firm foothold in that attractive market until it was found that the im ports of all those products from Au stralia were not running smoothly. Par ticularly the (soft) drinks were out of stock only a few days after delivery in Bougainville. South Pacific Brewery ap proached the local authorities and of fered to handle all the incoming drinks and to make sure that they were effi ciently distributed. In exchange for this service the brewery was given the op portunity of introducing draught SP beer. The beer was well received and South Pacific Brewery gained a sub stantial share of the Bougainville mar ket - partly thanks to the establishment of its subsidiary company, Bougainville Beverages Pty. Ltd. Tbday, in 1989 there is nothing left of the import activities in Bougainville. All the required prod ucts are bought in locally, which is very much to the benefit of the economy of Papua New Guinea. Fire In 1975 a big fire broke out at the brewery in Lae. The company fire brigade, assisted by colleagues from other companies, had a hard struggle extinguishing the blaze. They were un able to prevent the total destruction of the storage tanks and cooling installa tions. Production had to be stopped for several weeks, but thanks to good stock management there was no shortage of SP beer. With the cooperation of Heineken Ibchnisch Beheer and Malayan Brew eries the brewery at Lae was refur bished. Fourteen months after the fire eight big tanks designed by Heineken had been installed on the brewery site. These tanks made it possible to operate much more efficiently and brought a marked improvement in the working conditions of the employees in the stor age cellars. In the long run, therefore, the fire of 12 May 1975 had a favourable effect for the Lae brewery after all. Expansion In the late 'seventies and early 'eighties South Pacific Brewery was faced with keen competition. And yet the brewery was able to maintain its position as market leader. Because the market saturation meant that no major increases were expected in the volume of beer sales, the business decided in the first half of the 'eighties to widen the scope of its activities. Apart from brewing beer, attention was focused on the production of soft drinks. The trans ition proved a success. Currently South Pacific Brewery has a share of about of the soft drinks market. At the moment South Pacific Brew ery comprises two breweries, three soft drinks plants and thirteen depots and provides work for a total of 1,300 em ployees. After the mining industry, the company is the biggest production oper ation in Papua New Guinea. AVAILABLE HERE THE WORLD OF HEINEKEN

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World of Heineken | 1989 | | pagina 36