...if it's your
name, you don't
want other people
doing all kinds
of strange things
with it
The first Operating Company
belonged to the family, and undertook to restore the family's
majority shareholding. 'It may sound crazy, but I'm determined to
do it,' he wrote to his father in 1947 from the United States. By
early 1954 he had achieved his goal: Alfred Heineken had
regained a majority stake. "I bought the shares in order to have
control. If it's your name, you don't want other people doing all
kinds of strange things with it," he explained years later.
Having regained a majority shareholding, Alfred Heineken began
shaping the organisation, first as a Member of the Supervisory
Board and later as an adviser to and Delegate Member of the
Supervisory Board. He had a clear vision of the future of the
brewery and knew that the organisation was not ready at that
time to make the great leap forward in growth which he
envisaged. He was able to convince the management of the need
for an overarching public limited liability company, within which
the activities in The Netherlands were 'only' a part. The breweries
in Amsterdam and Rotterdam were combined into a single
organisation, which today is called an Operating Company. The
formation of Heineken N.V. laid the foundations for major
expansion. The new Heineken, strong and resilient, was ready to
face the future.
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