TENERIFE
Importer for Heineken on Tenerife
for the past three years has been
Rolom S.A. This sales office was set
up in 1987 by El Aguila, Heineken's
operating company in Spain, to-
improve sales and distribution of the
Spanish Aguila brand and of
Heineken beer. In its first three years
Rolom has shown strong growth. Its
warehouse has meanwhile been
doubled in size and new office
premises were opened up last year.
After clearance through customs
the containers are driven into the
Rolom warehouse where the prod
ucts are unloaded by hand and then
stacked on pallets. Wholesale busi
nesses which order a full container
have it delivered direct from the dock-
side to save time.
Some wholesalers pick up their
order from Rolom themselves, but
most of them place an order by tele
phone. Wherever possible, the order
is delivered on the same day. The El
Aguila delivery trucks are used for
these deliveries. This speedy service
to customers is one of the assets
which has helped Rolom to build up
an excellent reputation over the past
three years.
Support
Rolom S.A. is headed by Gabriel
Chastang. He handles contacts with
twenty wholesale businesses. Each
wholesale firm has its own sales force
and is assisted in selling Heineken
and Aguila by three representatives
employed by Rolom. That support
from Rolom is vital, as the wholesa
lers sell an extensive range of prod
ucts, including beers which compete
with Heineken and Aguila. The three
Rolom representatives, William
Machin Barbuzano, Miguel Rojas and
José Llinas, visit retailers, supermar
kets and licensed outlets and provide
support, for instance by supplying
supermarkets with POS material and
display material for the Heineken
shelves, by keeping an eye on retail
prices and by controlling quality.
Their customer contacts are aimed
more at fostering good relations with
outlets than at boosting sales.
At present about 60% of all
Heineken beer is sold via the super
markets and grocery stores. In the
tourist areas (where, as said,
Heineken's interest is considerably
less important) that proportion is
completely different; eighty per cent
of all Heineken beer is sold via hotels,
restaurants and bars. The range in
which Heineken is available at the
moment consists of the 25 cl can (in a
six-pack) and the 50 cl can for super
market sales, plus the 33 cl bottle and
can and 50 litre kegs for the on-
premise outlets. Rolom also sells
Buckler in 33 cl bottles and cans.
Solution
The relatively large numbers of
wholesale businesses were required a
few years ago to achieve optimum dis
tribution within a brief space of time.
But, since then, the market has
changed. Competition has hotted up.
Wholesalers also compete with each
other, using the quantity discount
they get from Rolom to offer Heineken
beer at a lower price than their col
league wholesalers. This unsettling
development is - obviously - not
appreciated by the retailers or the
on-premise trade.
According to Gabriël, a smaller
There are still only few tourist
attractions in the Tenerife
interior. So why not take a
ride on a camel
zon. Keen competition - chiefly on
Gran Canaria - and the constant
threat of a price war breaking out at
wholesaler level mean that Heineken
needs to keep a closer watch on devel
opments.
To date Heineken beer has appar
ently sold by itself. That has now
changed; marketing techniques are
becoming increasingly important.
With the arrival of Roel de Haan more
purposeful efforts can be made to set
up a consistent marketing approach
in which the central aims are an even
stronger profiling and positioning for
Heineken beer on the Canaries mar
ket.
Gabriël Chastang (left) is
head of Rolom S.A. on Ten
erife. Roel de Haan, area
export manager for
Heineken, is permanently
stationed on the island.
W O R I)
H K I N E k K M
