This river system has been used to transport
goods of all kinds for hundreds of years
World ofHeineken 37 Winter 2007/2008
Unloading beer
on the Congo River
Alternative ways of reaching our depots and distribution
centres
Van den Brink says that the entre-depot in Ubundu is managed by
a priest from a local monastery. "He is a person who is reliable and
capable of handling the small depot. From Ubundu to Kindu we have
our own wooden boat. The wood, from the Mbandaka and Kisangani
region, was transported by train to Ubundu where local craftsman
constructed the boat with instructions from Mbandaka."
The brewery in Mbandaka in the north-west of DRC was closed from
1999 to 2004 due to the political instability in the country. "In 2005
the brewery was reopened," says van den Brink, "and by the beginning
of 2006 the city of Mbandaka was well serviced so the local sales team
start looking for new opportunities outside the city. In the 1980's
around 80% of sales were realised outside of the city, whose region
has a population of around five million.
"Not a single road is left from the old infrastructure," he says. "Our
only option was to develop sales through boats making use of the
Congo and Ubangui rivers, as well as the smaller tributaries. Four
baleinieres were built from local wood, and they now service the
cities of Imfondo, Boende, and Likolela." Van den Brink says that today
around 25% of sales come from outside Mbandaka through boats.
"Unfortunately the southern and central part of the Nord-Kivu is still
suffering from political instability," says van den Brink. A renegade
ge
a depot, which is supplied by boat fr
located. "The product isTdllefeW^uck hf SSfïRs^lBuïors,
road from Goma to Beni and Butembo passes through a National Park
more or less controlled by the rebel forces," he says. "Usually, they d
not interfere with traffic from south to north but every now and then
trucks are attacked, as was the case in October 2007 with two trucks
of one of the two distributors.
commercial manager of Bralima, a Kinshasa-based Heineken brewery
that oversees brands including Primus, Turbo King and Coca Cola.
"It is hard to imagine the nature of some of the challenges our
distribution network has to meet on a day-to-day basis, if one has
never encountered these types of challenges first hand. Of course, in
addition to the natural elements, the episodes of political instability
are also a source for concern, so we monitor the situation closely.
The river - a key part of the distribution system
"The fact is that this river system has been used to transport goods of
all kinds for hundreds of years. So, by adapting to the local conditions,
as well as the local cultural environment, delivering beer to retailers
hundreds of kilometres up-river has become part of our daily work"
says Van den Brink. "A prime example of adapting to local conditions
can be seen in SRD Fleuve. There they set up a direct-sales system
by Bralima to sell to small villages and settlements a long the rivers,
covering the Bascongo, Mbandaka and Kisangani regions," he adds.
in uecemoe72006 we opened a depot in Kindu in the centre of DRC,
400 km south of our brewery in Kisangani. To supply the depot we
transport products by train from Kisangani to Ubundu. We cannot take
the river as there are waterfalls in between," van den Brink explains.
"The train is extremely irregular, there is no official timetable, and the
train frequently breaks down halfway, taking a long time to repair.
Luckily our beer is well pasteurised!"
"The larger local boats are called baleinieres and are constructed
of local wood that is abundantly available, especially in the Equateur
province," van den Brink explains. "To build a boat with a capacity
of 3,000 cases costs around EUR 8,000 and provides employment to
sratesroeti. J ne smaller boats, called pirogues have a capacity of
around 300 cases, and qp^Sg^^yj^d to navigating shallow water."
