SOUTH AMERICA: CONTINENT
OF OPPORTUNITIES
A
Heineken Export
explores continent
South America. A continent
of opportunities for
Heineken, believes Regional
Export Manager llco
Schuringa. But the precondi
tions have to be right. And
over the past two years
hard work has been done to
get them right.
Heineken's position in South America
is still modest. Both the position of
Heineken Beer and that of the com
pany. One positive exception is form
ed by Argentina, where Heineken has
been brewed under licence for the
past year by Quilmes, the brewery
group in which Heineken has a 15%
interest. Prior to that Heineken was
obtainable as an imported beer.
Thanks to the efforts of Quilmes and
the presence of Dutchwoman
Jacqueline Speek as Heineken marke
ting manager, sales of the brand
have increased sixfold over the past
year!
brand lacked relevance for the
consumer. Heineken is something
special, consumers agreed, but not so
special that they were willing to pay
four times more. The solution to this
problem was simple yet effective:
increase the relevance by reducing
the price. So that means being satis
fied with a lower profit margin. That
tactic is gradually bearing fruit in
countries like Argentina and Chile.
Other markets will follow shortly.
COLOMBIA
One of those markets is Colombia.
Heineken Export's Etienne Strijp is
But Argentina is the exception, as
Heineken Beer is not generally avail
able in other South American coun
tries. Mr Schuringa has a simple ex
planation: "The image of Heineken is
good. There's nothing wrong there.
But the enormous import duties
make it four times more expensive
than local beer. The segment that
you then operate in is too small to
really build up a position."
lWo years ago Heineken sent Paul
Disch out to the export office in
South America. He looked into the
values of the Heineken brand for the
consumer. Research showed that the
based in Colombia where he will be
building up the brand in three coun
tries:
Colombia, Peru and Ecuador. For
the time being Mr Strijp is working
from the premises of distributor
Restrepo, as that will ensure that he
is 'on top of the business' and can
quickly learn the local situation.
"Colombia, with a volume of 20 mil
lion hectolitres, is what you call a big
beer market. By far the greater part
of that volume is mainstream beer.
The premium segment amounts to
350,000 hi, which is less than 2% of
the total beer market. In this seg-
Etienne Strijp: "On-premise is the showcase for our brand"