The new company is called
Vietnam Brewery Limited and
the brewery, with an initial
capacity of 300,000 hectolitres, will
come on stream at the end of 1993.
The brewery is being built in the
vicinity of Ho Chi Minh City and will
initially produce Tiger Beer. The
Tiger brand is owned by Asia Pacific
Breweries. At a later stage the possibi
lity of producing Heineken beer local
ly will be considered. Heineken and
Tiger are market leaders in the
imports segment in Vietnam.
The office of Vietnam Brewery Ltd. in Ho
Chi Minh City.
At the present time beer consump
tion per head of the population is still
especially low (1.2 litres). Experts
expect that the beer market will
expand strongly in the next few years
because of Vietnam's growing focus
on a free market economy.
APB
Heineken participates in the
Vietnamese brewery via Asia Pacific
Breweries (APB), a Singapore-based
joint venture between soft drinks pro
ducer Fraser Neave and Heineken.
Established in 1929, Asia Pacific
Breweries is probably the oldest inter
national joint venture in Singapore.
Over the years APB has developed
from a brewery company in Singapore
to become a major regional brewing
group with interests in Malaysia,
Papua New Guinea, China and New
Zealand. Besides this, APB exports to
more than 45 countries in Asia and
Europe.
Over the past decades APB has
built up an extensive know-how of
doing business in Asia. That's why
Heineken opted to have its stake in
Vietnam Brewery Limited held via
APB.
Complex
APB has a 60% participation in the
Vietnamese brewery. The remaining
forty per cent is held by Foodstuff
Company II, a part of the Commercial
Department of Ho Chi Minh City. APB
is investing over 25 million US dollars
in the new company.
Heineken also has a close direct
involvement in the new project.
General manager A. Kiljan van
Heuven is a Heineken man. In addi
tion, the brewery will be built under
Heineken's supervision and technical
assistance will be provided once the
brewery is operational.
It took a long time before the con
tracts could be signed. The expecta
tion was that negotiations would have
been finalised by the beginning of
1991. But practice proved that the
realisation of such a project is very
complex, partly because of the struc
ture of government in Vietnam and
the complicated legislation. On top of
this, the entry of foreign investors is a
new experience for Vietnam.
T II E W II L I) II F HEINEKEN
