SECOND YOUTH FOR GBNC
BUT STILL "NUMBER ONE"
Grande Brasserie
de Nouvelle Caledonie,
or GBNC, has started on its
second youth, says its
General Manager lean-Marc
Landriau, thanks to the
upgrading of the brewery's
technical condition.
o
c.
*3
AUSTR.ALI A
<4
Noumeai
NICKEL
New Caledonia forms part of the
Melanesian islands in the South West
Pacific. The Japanese refer to New
Caledonia as 'the nearest island from
paradise'. Its 200,000 inhabitants
hail from all corners of the globe:
Europeans, Haitians, Indonesians,
Vietnamese, etc.
Since 1946 New Caledonia has
been part of France and is a French
overseas département. Its principal
source of income is nickel extraction;
New Caledonia is the world's third
biggest nickel producer. Other impor
tant sources of income are tourism,
the cultivation of coffee and cattle
farming.
MERGER
The history of Grande Brasserie de
Nouvelle Caledonie started in 1920
with the establishment of the brew
ery known as La Glacière. In 1953 the
name was changed to Grande
Brasserie Caledonienne. The beer
market showed a steady decline in
those years and, when a second
brewery opened its gates in the early
'seventies, the inevitable situation
arose in 1974: the two breweries had
to merge. As a result of the merger
GBNC was formed. Heineken current
ly has an interest of 87.1% in the
brewery on New Caledonia.
GBNC has substantially streng
thened its position in the beer mar
ket in recent years. The total beer
market in 1996 amounted to 110,000
hectolitres. Of this volume, GBNC
accounted for 84,000 hi.
Beer forms the lion's share of
GBNC's sales, but another important
source of income is formed by soft
drinks such as Amigo, Kick, Pepsi and
Schweppes.
Number One is the absolute
blockbuster amongst the beer
brands. As much as 96% of all the
beer that GBNC sells is Number One.
GBNC also brews Master lager and
there are plans to brew Amstel
within the foreseeable future. The
brewery also sells the imported
brands Heineken, Pelforth, George
Killian's, Wieckse Witte, Adelscott,
Kingston and Desperados.
After twenty years of service the
brewhouse and the cellars were
ready for a major refurbishing and
extension. The brewery had already
been operating at maximum capa
city for several years and even that
was not sufficient to cope with the
peaks in sales.
The most important invest
ments involve the installation of
four new fermenting tanks, the
housing of the utilities in a sepa
rate department, the installation
of new yeast storage tanks, an
automatic palletiser for finished
products and expansion of the C02
recuperation. In addition, the bre
wery site has been enlarged so
that a start can be made at the end
of this year on construction of a
water purification plant.
Right: GBNC General Manager lean-Marc Landriau and, next to him. Technical Manager
Matthijs Dietvorst.
