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World of Heineken 42 - summer 2010
"International premium brands are not yet
well-established in the Mexican market, so
the main competition comes from domestic
premium brands such as Modelo Especial and
Heineken's own Bohemia. Budweiser has made
some progress - mainly as Bud Light - in the
north-west states of Mexico, so we can't be
complacent," continues John.
"The premium segment in Mexico currently
accounts for less than 4% of the market, but
we've proven that the Heineken brand already
contains the 'basic credentials' to lead the
development of this category. Until now, the
brand has lacked the presence - visibility and
availability - to succeed; through CCM, we have
the ideal route to market and we are working
on developing an understanding of who the
target consumer should be for the brand, and
how to drive relevance with them."
"We have a lot to do in Brazil, where we have a
weak position against the market leader," says
Jean-Frangois van Boxmeer. "It's certainly not
an easy position to operate from when you are
number three. Brazil is undoubtedly tougher,
though there is definitely an opportunity for us
to grow premium beer there."
EXPORT OPPORTUNITIES
"There are huge export opportunities for
CCM's portfolio by leveraging Heineken's
existing structure in other countries, especially
for Sol and Dos Equis. The US is already
capitalising on these brands, and there is a
plan currently being developed to exploit their
full potential.
"Leveraging the maximum value from the
deal relies to a certain degree on a smooth
integration of FEMSA's beer business and
Heineken," explains John. "We're off to a great
start, as we already had a team of people
managing the integration while the deal was
being finalised. These efforts are now being
coordinated by two Integration Programme
Offices (IPO) in Brazil and Mexico.
"For us, 'Heinekenising' everyone from day one
is simply not on the list of priorities - this is
already a healthy business with good people.
What is important is to capture the synergies
and get the most value out of them, while at
the same time protecting the base business.
Once we've made progress in these areas,
over time we can start aligning and optimising
administrative processes and organisational
structures. It is also crucial that we are open
to understanding what the acquired business
does better, so that we can learn and benefit.
"We believe in respecting cultural differences;
you can't change these things in a short
period of time, and in any case you might
not want to. We've carried out an in-depth
study looking at the cultural differences
between the Dutch, Americans and Mexicans.
We examined how different cultures handle
issues related to loyalty, motivation, decision
making, compensation, sources of authority,
delegation, and much, much more. For
example, talking with our people already in the
business and CCM colleagues, we discovered
we are culturally aligned from a business
perspective. We're finding that the direction
John Nicolson, Regional Director
The Americas, presents the benefits of the
recent FEMSA acquisition
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