Don John, the man who made Restrepo one of the big companies in Colombia. ment there is a local premium brand as well as several imported beers, including Heineken. Price is impor tant in Colombia. We don't want too big a price difference between Heineken and the local premium beer. The other main task for the years ahead is to do much more to raise the visibility of the brand. The emphasis is on the on-premise, as that is the showcase for your brand." Distributor Restrepo is also in vesting in the future of the Heineken brand and will soon be appointing special Heineken coordinators to deal exclusively with sales of Heineken Beer. This distributor is one of the big companies in Colombia and is headed by Don John, a man who once started as a sales representative for a biscuit factory but now handles the distribution of a highly diverse range of products. "Restrepo is a pro fessional organisation with branches throughout Colombia and, because of that excellent distribution net work, it is a first-rate partner for Heineken", explains Mr Strijp. Though expectations for Heineken in Colombia are not specta cular, they are generally positive. Partly that is due to the size of the beer market, but it is also attributa ble to favourable economic signals. "The economy is stable if you compa re it to that of the surrounding coun tries and that always provides a bet ter basis for growth opportunities. In Ecuador the local currency fell sharp ly in value a couple of months ago and that, of course, has a considera ble negative impact on your margin." Peru, another country that Mr Strijp is focusing on, is more or less in between Ecuador and Colombia in terms of economic development and the size of its beer market. "In Peru we are faced with high import duties and so we have to make do with a lower margin. Heineken is sold there by what was originally a pharma ceuticals business, Quimica Suiza, which has appointed a marketing manager, two supervisors and four representatives specifically to work on Heineken." VISIBILITY Ilco Schuringa agrees that much work is needed to boost the visibility of the Heineken brand. Not only in Colombia but also throughout South America. But he realises that enor mous investments will be required to obtain any sort of coverage for the brand in this vast continent. There is a threat of a vicious circle: too little distribution and therefore too little visibility, which in turn will impact on distribution. "If you have no vol ume basis, you cannot really do much with a brand. For an imported beer like Heineken you have to create market 'pull' to gain a presence in important channels like supermar kets and the millions of street-corner kiosks. You create that pull by adap ting your price in line with local cir cumstances." "Given the economic conditions and the import barriers it's unlikely that we can build up a strong posi tion in South America via traditional exports. One exception may possibly be Uruguay, which has a free trade zone. Over the short and medium term Heineken Export certainly has a lot of work to do. By strengthening the distribution we can have a better position. We must exploit the strength of Heineken Export so that ultimately, over the long term, we can secure a position for the Heineken brand whilst maintaining the right image." South America, therefore, is still relatively unexplored territory for Heineken. But hard work is being done to change this. In April this year the new office of the Heineken Cluster Latin America was officially opened in Rio de Janeiro by Executive Board member Thony Ruys. "Lots of things will be happening this year. In Brazil alone we've taken on a 65-strong sales force to give Heineken greater market visi bility. Besides, fourteen Heineken expats will be working on the spot to strenghten our presence in the Latin American region", says Lex Kiljan van Heuven, who heads up the operation in South America. In a future issue of The World of Heineken we'll be taking a closer look at the opening of the new office and at the chances that Heineken has in this continent with its enormous beer markets, like those in Argentina and Brazil.

Jaarverslagen en Personeelsbladen Heineken

World of Heineken | 1999 | | pagina 7