Company & strategy

The world’s most international brewer

HEINEKEN is a proud, independent global brewer committed to surprise and excite consumers everywhere. Four key attributes make the Company different: Heineken® is the first and only truly global beer brand, enjoyed in 178 countries around the world; a unique, worldwide footprint with operations in 71 countries, ensuring a broader reach for our brands than any other brewer; an internationally diverse, dynamic, committed and entrepreneurial team of around 70,000 employees; and the passion of the Heineken family remains as strong today as it was in 1864 when we first started brewing beer.

Wherever you are in the world, you are able to enjoy one of our brands. We own, market and sell more than 250 of them. Our principal global brand is Heineken®, the world’s most valuable international premium beer brand. Other international premium, regional, local and specialty beers include Amstel®, Birra Moretti®, Cruzcampo®, Desperados®, Dos Equis®, Foster’s®, Newcastle Brown Ale®, Ochota®, Primus®, Sagres®, Sol®, Star®, Tecate®, Zlaty Bazant® and Zywiec®. Our leading joint venture brands include Anchor®, Cristal®, Kingfisher® and Tiger®.

In addition to our global portfolio, HEINEKEN is the world’s biggest cider maker with brands such as Strongbow Gold® and Bulmer’s®.

Priorities

HEINEKEN is focused on five business priorities. Each one helps us to achieve one goal of winning in all markets with Heineken® and with a full brand portfolio in markets where we choose.

1) Grow the Heineken® brand
2) Consumer-inspired, customer-oriented, and brand-led
3) Capture the opportunities in emerging markets
4) Leverage the benefits of HEINEKEN’s global scale
5) Drive personal leadership
Enabler: Brewing a Better Future
History

The story began almost 150 years ago in 1864, when Gerard Adriaan Heineken acquired a small brewery in the heart of Amsterdam. Since 1886 the unique Heineken A-yeast has guaranteed the pure premium taste of Heineken® beer. After 13 years of prohibition, in 1933 Heineken® became available in America and in 1937 the first Heineken® beer was brewed outside the Netherlands, in what was then the Dutch East Indies.

Over the ensuing years, growth and acquisitions substantially expanded the Company, firstly in Western Europe and Africa, followed by acquisitions in Central and Eastern Europe and Russia. In 2010, HEINEKEN acquired the beer operations of Fomento Económico Mexicano, S.A.B. de C.V. in Mexico (including its US and other export business) and Brazil, an acquisition that strengthened the Company’s leading international portfolio with the addition of Dos Equis®, Sol® and Tecate®. In 2011, HEINEKEN continued to create new platforms for future growth by acquiring five new breweries in Nigeria and two new breweries in Ethiopia. The Company also started brewing Heineken® in Mexico and India.

Four generations of the Heineken family have been actively involved in the expansion of the Heineken® brand and the HEINEKEN Company throughout the world.