ice beers was one of the reasons why the growth of Heineken in 1993 lag ged behind expectations. Mel Sherwin cannot see ice beers presenting any danger over the long term, but he does admit that the success of ice beers has come at the wrong time: "They all come and go, but the good brands suffer because of the price fighting. 1 am convinced, however, that at a given moment the consumer will have had enough of experi menting with other types of beers and will go back to basics. Which means back to Heineken." Brisbane In Brisbane in the state of Queensland the downward spiral in which Heineken found itself has also been halted and an increase in sales was booked again last year. One of the reasons for the higher sales in Queensland is tourism. Particularly the Gold Coast and Surfers Paradise are popular holiday destinations for both foreign tourists and Australians. During the big recession Queens land always operated somewhat out of the wind and profited from the recession in the other states. Many inhabitants of New South Wales and Victoria have fled the recession in recent years by moving to Queens land, another motive for moving house being Queensland's pleasant subtropical climate. Queensland is al so a low tax state, which has brought in more investment by business. Just like in New South Wales the boom in imported brands also occur red in Queensland. Hundreds of brands were put on the market in Queensland. Today only a few are left over. Inchcape Liquor Marketing Queensland is established in the capital Brisbane. From this base every effort is made to simulate sales of Heineken Beer in the on premise out lets. At the present time some 35% of Heineken Beer goes to the on premise outlets. But Graham Shonhan is not satisfied with this level. "We want to be more present in the on premise outlets. That's the place where you can create image. The off premise outlets are there to create volume. For 1994 we plan to devote more time and energy to the on premise sector by visiting more outlets." The off premise sector in Queens land differs strongly from that in the rest of Australia. You won't find any beer on supermarket shelves. The hotel chains have been successful in lobbying the Queensland government. As a result, a law is in force that beer, wines and strong liquor can only be sold via hotels so as to protect the hotel trade. Bob Maag, second in charge at Inchcape in Brisbane, explains: "Here in Queensland we have three diffe rent types of outlet. You have hotels with their own bars. Then you have the liquor barns and the detached bottle shops. A liquor barn is a buil ding next to the hotel in which the hotel owner sells alcoholic drinks. Often such a liquor barn consists of two parts: a shop and a drive through section where the customer can place an order straight from the car. The personnel then loads the orders in the car. Lastly, you've got the detached bottle shops. These shops, which are also owned by hotels, are often found in shopping centres. If there is a supermarket in such a shopping mall, this has a positive spin off effect on the sales of such a bottle shop." Perth One city where Heineken is doing well is Perth, the capital of Western Australia. This state covers one-third of the whole of Australia but has only nine per cent of the total population Some 1 million people live in itself, with around 600,000 in the s; rounding areas. Inchcape Li Marketing in Perth has been b since recently by Michael Stej Previously state manager in W Australia, he had since spent a Melbourne in the same post, now back in his old hunting grot§! It took him a little while to familiar with the market again. There had been many positive changes for Heineken during the year he had been away. "In 1993 our W O R 1. D HEINEKEN •Mill" !d"i"

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World of Heineken | 1994 | | pagina 19