...we made
a conscious
decision to keep
the service
in house
fm
Heine!
Amstel
PAGE 28
Amstel, the second lager in the Heineken Ireland portfolio has shown its capability to
compete in an extremely aggressive off-trade segment of the Irish lager market - the
mainstream segment. Amstel in Ireland has grown, with strong volume gains year on
year, since its packaged introduction in 1996. With 2003 volumes increasing by 34%
compared to 2002, the latest development for the Amstel brand is the recent introduc
tion of an on-trade draught test in the second quarter of 2004. Meabh Clohosey, Marketing
Manager for Amstel in Ireland, believes that "Amstel consumers associate the brand the
most with one of the Irish' favorite pastimes, soccer, in the form of the UEFA Champions
League, which is sponsored by Amstel."
T"**
The draught service represents an enormous investment in quality
assurance by Heineken Ireland. The pub owner does not have to
pay a cent for the cleaning and maintenance of his installation,
but the costs for Heineken Ireland are very high. None the less
the brewery would be reluctant to outsource this service, as has
been done by other breweries in Ireland. "We made a conscious
decision to keep the service in house. We know it is more
expensive to do it ourselves, but we have a much better relation
ship with the customer," Orford explains. That closer relationship
is the reason why Heineken has been accorded preferred supplier
status by the trade for many years in succession.
Heineken Ireland has set up its own draught beer competence
centre in Cork. Recent innovations include a new process that
reduces the number of times that beer lines need to be cleaned
from thirteen to eleven times a year. Technology has also been
developed to test the durability of dispenser installations.
Orford is an advocate of getting the brewery employees much
more involved in what is happening outside the brewery. "In the
past the brewery and the draught service were two separate
worlds," Orford explains. This is no longer the case with the
