HEINEKEN OPPOSITE THE WHITE HOUSE
Directly opposite the White
House there is an enormous
Heineken sign on top of a
building by the river. We're
not talking about the White
House in Washington, but in
Moscow. This White House is
the home of the Russian
government.
The neon sign measures
30 by 6 metres, which makes
it one of Moscow's biggest.
Area export manager Joost
Hilgersom, who works in the
Moscow export office which
was opened in 1996, feels
Distributor Vipont in China
recently took charge of the
distribution of Amstel in the
People's Republic. The prod
uct was introduced this
March. Amstel for the
Chinese market is brewed in
the brewery in Hainan,
which recently came on
stream. Overall responsibility
for the entire distribution
operation is in the hands of
Heineken Export.
Vipont is distributing
Amstel in the big cities of
that the location is perfect:
"The building stands on the
banks of the River Moskva
on Novy Arbat street, one of
Moscow's main thorough
fares. The building and the
neon sign are clearly visible
from five of the busiest
streets in Moscow." The neon
sign was made locally and
radiates Heineken green both
when illuminated and when
unlit.
Shanghai, Guangzhou and
Shenzhen. Amstel is mainly
on sale in the medium-cate
gory restaurants where it is
served from the 65 cl bottle,
the most common pack for
mat for sales in restaurants.
Vipont Director S.K.
Wong (second from left)
signs the contracts. Looking
on, from left, are Heineken
managers Wilson Tan, Jack
van Herpen and Chu Chun
Ho.
Heineken USA is using
Internet for its business
planning operations. The
basis is formed by a software
package called HOPS
(Heineken Operational
Planning System) which was
launched as a pilot last
December.
Developed by Heineken
USA in cooperation with
American Software Inc., the
HOPS program offers many
benefits, such as a strong
reduction in lead times for
orders and instant access to
the database with informa
tion on inventory levels and
sales results.
The distributors of
Heineken USA provide the
input for HOPS. At the
moment the pilot phase
involves four (out of the total
of four hundred) distributors.
They enter their sales results
and orders in the sub-pages
of the HOPS site on the
Internet. Access to these
pages is protected. HOPS
then generates time-phased
orders for each distributor
based on current inventory,
sales forecasts and target
inventory positions. During
testing with the distributors,
HOPS has already reduced
the order lead time from 10-
12 weeks to 4-6 weeks.
EFFICIENCY
Apart from bringing
improvements in forecasting
and supply chain logistics,
the HOPS program also
boosts the efficiency of the
Heineken USA sales represen
tatives. As Eric Morham, Vice
President Sales of Heineken
USA, explains: "Prior to
HOPS, our field sales force
worked more closely with
distributors on orders and
deliveries. Now they have
significantly more time to
devote to sales because dis
tributors handle the adminis
trative work directly with
our head office in White
Plains and with the brew
eries in Holland."
Steve Hauser, Director of
Field Marketing for Heineken
USA, says that HOPS also
leads to improvements in the
areas of brand management
and regional marketing
efforts. "Brand managers will
have significantly more
information available on a
timely basis to help them
understand key issues such
as volume trends, promo
tional effectiveness and
package and brand profit
ability."
