AMSTEL
Left, director Julio Pego, of
Recasa S.A., right, his col
league for Gran Canaria,
José Escuder. Making efforts
to build up a solid market
position for Amstel.
decided to open up a separate ware
house in the capital. Customers in the
city can thus receive their deliveries
quickly and efficiently.
tions. In addition, three technicians
drive round in vans painted in
Heineken colours to carry out the
necessary cleaning work. Seven days
a week the employees of Willem
Oomen can be reached when problems
need to be solved quickly.
In the workshop not only repair
work is done. Signs are also produced
on the spot. The drawings are made by
an outside studio, but Willem Oomen
stocks all the materials and equipment
needed to produce all formats of signs
and outdoor lettering.
Service must also be reflected in
prompt delivery. In view of the grow
ing market in Las Palmas, Oomen has
Julio Pego is director of Recasa, the
importing firm which handles the sale
and distribution of Amstel beer for all
the Canary Islands. In April last year
Heineken decided to introduce Amstel
beer on the Canary Islands and to tar
get it at both the local population and
the tourists. Amstel, which is cheaper
than Heineken, is aimed at offering an
attractive alternative for tourists with
less money to spend.
So Amstel is still a young branch on
the Heineken tree on the Canary
Islands and Pego frankly admits that
Heineken's strong position on the
islands will not make his task any
easier. 'You see, Heineken beer simply
has an outstanding reputation. But the
advantage of Amstel is that it's priced
slightly more favourably than
Heineken whilst people still see it as an
international beer. We took part in a
trade fair on Tenerife and visitor reac
tions were very positive. Indeed, this is
also reflected in the sales figures; they
are in line with our expectations and
so we are satisfied. But we think that
Amstel still has a lot more potential.
The recently completed television
commercial is helping us in achieving
this.'
On Tenerife Recasa has a 12-man
sales force, some of whom deal with
on-premise clients, others with the
retail trade. Recasa keeps those two
forms of sales separate, as its other
successful product (its own manufac
tured brand of cookies, plus a Danish
brand of cookies) is sold only to the
retail trade. For Amstel Recasa is now
also focusing its attention on sales to
the on-premise trade. Particularly on
Gran Canaria sales of Amstel via
licensed premises are significantly
higher than in the retail trade. José
Escuder, who at the time of our talk
was managing the sales of Amstel on
Gran Canaria, says that, despite the
keen competition, they have every
faith in Amstel. 'Amstel is still difficult
to sell because it's a new beer. But the
consumers who have tried it want to
continue drinking it.'
On Gran Canaria Recasa is rep
resented via Archipelago, a Recasa
subsidiary. The range sold by this busi
ness includes the cookies described
earlier as well as Libby's fruit juices.
On behalf of Archipelago thirteen rep
resentatives are active, mainly trying
to strengthen Amstel's position in the
on-premise outlets. Escuder: 'We've
got an address list of 4,000 customers
on Gran Canaria, but by no means all of
those are potential Amstel customers.
The sales of Amstel can improve a little
further yet, but we still don't have much
experience of selling beer.'
Archipelago is also aware that it
lacks experience of the on-premise
trade. That lack is provisionally being
offset by the great enthusiasm and
intense efforts devoted to Amstel. The
Archipelago representatives intend to
familiarise themselves with the on-
premise market as quickly as possible
by paying more frequent visits to cus
tomers. In that way attempts will also
be made to ensure that Amstel is intro
duced into the relevant outlet.
T H F. W 0 RED OF H F I N FK FN
