Heineken will release a first-quarter trading update on Wednesday (24 April). Here, just-drinks takes a look at the Dutch brewer’s highs and lows in the three months to the end of March.
- Heineken’s bid to take full control of Asia Pacific Breweries continued to limp across the finish line as the company mopped up the last outstanding shares. In January, Heineken extended a deadline for shareholders to sell their stakes in the Tiger brewer and a few days later issued a final call. By February it had acquired 99.6% of all the shares.
- Heineken’s Finnish brewer, Hartwall, made the headlines in the first quarter, initially with news it was to shed 75 jobs. Then, in February, Heineken announced Hartwall would undergo a “strategic review” to consider its future “within or outside” of the group. The unit’s future remains uncertain.
- The APB deal continued to make waves within Heineken as the company announced a swathe of executive switches. The brewer said the personnel moves were to ensure it maintains a “positive momentum” in the wake of the deal.
- Heineken showed it was not neglecting older demographics with the launch of a competition to target the “grey dollar”.
- On 5 March, the brewer unveiled plans to build a 1.5m-hectolitre-a-year brewery in Ethiopia. In an interview with just-drinks, Heineken’s GM in the country, Johan Doyer, said the country was developing fast and has big potential for beer makers.
- In a presentation to analysts, Heineken’s head of operations in Central & Eastern European, Jan Derck van Karnebeek, said the brewer was seeing increasing amounts of people willing to spend on “five-minute luxuries” such as premium beer.
- Heineken unveiled a new executive position in March when Chris Barrow was appointed chief strategy officer for the group. He will oversee the “evolution of Heineken’s wider business strategy”, the company said.
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