1 World of Heineken 38 - summer 2008
that better education is playing a role
in developing people's attitudes to beer
consumption."
The supply chain from the two breweries is
organised into five regions: West, DKI (Jakarta
area), Central, East and North. "Each region
has several distributors, so we sell to around
150 points," says Fedaus, Multi Bintang's
supply chain manager. "Of course, we can't
supply every one of the country's 17,500
islands. But our distributors, who in turn
supply wholesalers, see to it that virtually the
entire country is covered. Nationally, about a
third of our product is delivered by road, with
the remainder shipped to the outer islands by
container or conventional vessel."
A number of distributors have worked with
MBI for many years and developed efficient
ways to deliver products to the various areas.
"They know the local circumstances even
better than we do, so that creates a win-win
situation for all parties," he says.
The bulk of the company's beer is sold in
returnable bottles; this presents its own set
of challenges. "Just the distances, which can
sometimes be as much as 3,000 kilometres,
mean that while we would like to retrieve and
refill a bottle many times a year, the bottles
sent to the remote regions only come back
once or twice a year. We must often rely on
the fact that, luckily, some people collect
empty bottles for us. Flowever this means
that it can take time to get the bottle back to
the brewery for refilling." MBI ships to certain
remote islands one-way bottles, where a
return system would be too expensive.
One example of the particular challenges
of distributing beer in Indonesia is Fedaus's
experienced in Tanjung Pinang, a port in the
north of Sumatra Island. "The beer is shipped
to the port, but the port has very limited
facilities, so the only way to load and unload
the ships is by hand. This is time-consuming
and labour-intensive, and therefore highly
inefficient," he says. These challenges
are commonly faced by many businesses
in Indonesia. The result is that choice in
suppliers can sometimes be limited.
LOOKING TO THE FUTURE
MBI has developed strategies to find solutions
to the daily challenges of supplying the
islands. "We hold a weekly meeting with all
parties in the system to raise, discuss and
solve these issues, throughout the supply
chain from production right up to the end
consumer." says Ida Bagus Krisna.
"In sales for instance, we continuously
recalculate the stock level, frequency and
time of delivery. Step-by-step improvements
are made to ensure that we can deliver
the requested goods on time and in the
right quantity in a continuously changing
environment. This makes our job challenging,"
says Fedaus.
"Patience and innovations such as Heineken®
Extra Cold, as well as a selection of draught
beer equipment and new packing and
designs have enabled us to make the beer
market more exciting, says Rick Linck. "This,
coupled with the superb efforts and loyalty
of our 600 employees, has led to us being
able to gradually increase our market share
throughout Indonesia. Today, MBI is the
market leader in the beer segment."
rickJinck@multibintang.co.id
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