As Indonesia's leading beer manufacturer, PT Multi Bintang
serves the world's fourth most populous country. World of
Heineken spoke to managers there about the challenges of
supplying an archipelago of more than 17,500 islands.
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World of Heineken 38 - summer 2008
The story goes that tourists visiting Indonesia
sometimes think that "Bintang" means beer. In
a way, that small confusion is a compliment to
the ubiquity of Bintang, Indonesia's largest-
selling brand, with an annual production
volume of 950,000 hectolitres.
Bintang is the main local beer brand brewed
and sold by PT Multi Bintang Indonesia
Tbk (MBI). The word means 'star', a symbol
that acknowledges the brand's origins in a
Heineken recipe.
MBI has a long history in Indonesia. The
company evolved from the Nederlands
Indische Bierbrouwerijen, which was
established in Medan in 1929, with a brewery
in Surabaya producing Java Bier. In 1936,
Heineken became a major shareholder.
Today, MBI is the leading beer manufacturer
in Indonesia, with sales and marketing
offices in all the major cities, from Medan in
North Sumatra tojayapura in Papua. It has
been listed on the Jakarta Surabaya Stock
Exchange since December 1981, and has
breweries in Sampang Agung (Mojokerto) and
Tangerang.
The MBI portfolio also includes Heineken®,
Green Sands, a shandy-like beer with very
little alcohol that comes in three flavour
variants, namely apple, peach and pineapple
- as well as the newly launched Green Sands
Recharge (energy soda) and Bintang Zero
alcohol-free beer. Of Heineken's local output,
83 per cent is sold in bottles, 14 per cent in
cans and three per cent in kegs.
"During its 77 years of operations in
Indonesia, MBI has been able to continuously
In Indonesia, delivery methods aren't always conventional
