Heineken

Heineken NV
legal form	Public company (NV)
ISIN	NL0000009165
founding	July 12, 1864
Seat	Amsterdam , Netherlands
management	Jean-François van Boxmeer (CEO)
Number of employees	85,610
sales	EUR 26.811 billion
Branch	brewery
Website	www.heinekeninternational.com
	As of December 31, 2018

Heineken Beer logo

Former Heineken brewery in Amsterdam

Heineken bottle with typical lettering on the crown cap.

Beer can with the typical Heineken logo

Heineken NV [ ˈɦɛinəkən ] is a Dutch brewery founded on July 12th 1864 by Gerard Adriaan Heineken. After the takeover of SABMiller by Anheuser-Busch InBev , the Heineken Group is the second largest brewery group in the world.

history

On February 15, 1864, Gerard Adriaan Heineken, with the support of his mother, bought the De Hooiberg brewery - at that time the largest in the area - in Amsterdam at the age of 22 . Beer has been produced there since 1592 . Until 1886, top-fermented , after the German model bottom-fermented produced beer.

With an aggressive pricing policy, Heineken succeeded in asserting itself against its toughest competitors Oranjeboom , van Vollenhoven and the German breweries on the domestic market by 1912 . In 1931 the first foreign branch was opened in Surabaya , Dutch East Indies . The production amounted to 200,000 hl per year (the average production of the competition was around 3,000 hl per year).

In 1936, Heineken founded today's Asian Pacific Breweries with the soft drink company Fraser and Neave . The widespread use of Heineken in Asia is based on these early investments. From the late 1930s onwards, the company also expanded in the USA and placed greater emphasis on advertising .

In the 1950s, the company had sales problems on the domestic market and was sustained by the foreign markets. By the end of the 1960s, the domestic market position could be consolidated, only to be harassed by foreign breweries, whose markets were saturated. This happened mainly through the takeover of the Dutch competition by foreign breweries.

In the 1970s, Heineken began to issue licenses to foreign breweries and so broadened its market position abroad. The brand helped US tourist demand for Heineken beer gain a foothold in the Caribbean. Towards the end of the 1980s, sales growth in the United States ceased against the backdrop of a ten-fold increase in imported beer brands from 30 to 300 in the United States in a period from the 1940s to the 1980s.

In the 1990s, after the "simple" markets had been conquered, Heineken was forced to devote itself to difficult markets such as Germany with its fragmented, regional beer market. By the year 2000 the company had become number two on the world market with a production of 98 million hl per year. In 2009, Heineken split the Scottish brewery group Scottish & Newcastle with its Danish competitor Carlsberg and took over the beer division of the Mexican conglomerate FEMSA .

2010 Heineken ranked according to Anheuser-Busch InBev , SAB Miller and above Carlsberg as number three worldwide among the breweries. With an export share of 19 million hectoliters in 170 countries, Heineken is the most widespread beer brand in the world. In the Netherlands, Heineken now has a market share of more than 50%. There, Heineken also produces and sells soft drinks such as Pepsi under its subsidiary Vrumona . In Finland , Heineken produces both beer and soft drinks (including Pepsi) under the Hartwall name. In October 2015, Heineken acquired a 50% stake in the US Lagunitas Brewery .

Holdings

Germany

Heineken held a 49.9% stake in the German Brau Holding International (BHI) founded in 2002 ; the majority of 50.1% is held by the Schörghuber Group from Munich. Well-known German brands such as Fürstenberg and Kulmbacher as well as a stake in the Paulaner brewery belong to the BHI . In 2017 the BHI was merged with the Paulaner Group. Heineken only holds 30% of the new Paulaner Brauerei Gruppe GmbH & Co. KGaA . The distribution of Heineken beer in Germany is carried out by Heineken Deutschland GmbH, based in Berlin-Friedrichshain .

Switzerland

In 1993, Heineken took over the Calanda Bräu brewery in Graubünden , to which the Haldengut brewery in Winterthur had belonged since 1989 ; In 1999, beer brewing in Winterthur was given up and production relocated to Chur. In addition to the beer, Calanda also bottles a mineral water under the name Calanda Aqua . Until 2009, Chur was the headquarters of Heineken Switzerland. With the purchase of the largest independent Swiss brewery Eichhof in Lucerne , the headquarters of Heineken Switzerland were relocated to Lucerne. In addition, Heineken has taken over the small Thurgau Ittinger monastery brewery .

Austria

In 2003 Heineken took over the majority of shares in the Austrian market leader Brau Union . As a result, some of the most famous Austrian beer brands are now owned by Heineken, u. a. Gösser , Zipfer , Kaiser , Wieselburger , Puntigamer , Schwechater , Edelweiß and Schlossgold (alcohol-free).

Breweries

Competition violation

In April 2007, Heineken - along with the other Dutch breweries or subsidiaries of Grolsch , Bavaria and InBev - was fined around 219 million euros in competition proceedings by the EU Commission for agreements on the Dutch beer market between 1996 and 1999 imposed. On July 3, 2007, Heineken brought an action for annulment against this decision of the Commission before the then court of first instance . In a judgment dated June 16, 2011, the General Court of the European Union ruled that Heineken's lawsuit is only justified with regard to individual aspects and that the rest of the proceedings are rejected. The fine was therefore reduced to € 198 million.

owner

Status: May 2019
Shareholders of Heineken NV:

50.005% Heineken Holding NV
8.632% FEMSA
41.363% free float

The following are involved in Heineken Holding NV:

52.599% L'Arche Green NV
12.262% FEMSA
35.139% free float

The shares of L'Arche Green NV are in turn 88.86% from the Heineken family (descendants of Alfred Heineken ) and 11.14% from the Hoyer family (descendants of Hubertus Hoyer, who acquired 30,000 guilders in the brewery in 1873 had been involved).

criticism

Heineken has been criticized for having patented three brewing barley varieties together with Carlsberg .

literature

Holland's beer flows in London . In: Daily port report from July 12, 2012, p. 16, Seehafen-Verlag, Hamburg 2012, ISSN 2190-8753 on logistics around the "Holland Heineken House" during the 2012 Olympic Games in London