20
tinued that work as part of a team
consisting of staff from all sorts of dis
ciplines: production, marketing,
finance, legal affairs and export.
The study resulted in a 'mission
scope' statement which mapped out
all the ideas for the years ahead.
Countries like China, Vietnam and
Thailand played a central role in that
'mission scope'. Those were countries
in which lleineken would have to
seek some of its expansion via APB.
But there were even more countries
on the list. One of them was India.
"India is a poor country but, of the
estimated population of 850 million,
100 million have a reasonable in
come. That offers a certain potential."
Heineken had long been interested in
activities in India, but restrictions in
the areas of trademark law and
investment policy had put the brake
on Heineken's initiatives. Now that
those obstacles have disappeared, Mr
Bijkens can see prospects for
Heineken in that enormous country.
Approach
During the years when Heineken
was preparing for its expansion in
Asia there was still no question of
making an approach to the local
breweries. "Beer markets in many
Asian countries are monopolistic. In
the 'eighties the brewers there were
certainly not looking to cooperate
with one of the world's big breweries.
They had been operating very suc
cessfully for decades and saw no
reason to change that situation.
Slowly but surely, however, the
realisation grew that in the future a
number of international brewing
groups and a number of global beer
brands would start to dominate the
world beer market. Many breweries
in Asia now see an alliance as
essential".
THE WORLD OF HEINEKEN
