Heineken refreshes its image

10 April 2012

It was promoted with one of the best-known advertising slogans ever coined, but now it seems Heineken no longer refreshes the parts other beers cannot reach'.

At least, not in the form it is brewed for the UK market. The problem is an alcohol by volume rating of 3.4 per cent that no longer has the muscle to satisfy current drinkers' tastes.

So the Dutch-owned brewing concern is to scrap its famously green-labelled British-strength beer. It will be replaced by a 'premium' lager which, at 5.2 per cent, has the body to compete with its rivals.

The brew, already sold on the Continent, was previously only available in the UK as a dearer export brand.

Now Heineken, with the help of a marketing campaign, intend to make sure their premium lager reaches the glasses of many more drinkers here.

The family-owned company, which first launched Heineken in the UK in 1951, will be competing with a range of stronger lagers such as Stella Artois, which has the same alcohol by volume rating as premium.

Heineken's stronger lager will either be brewed under licence in Britain or exported from the Netherlands.

Rob Marijnen, managing director of Heineken UK, yesterday confirmed that the company was looking to increase the strength of its lager in this country.

He said: ' There is a tendency among drinkers these days to concentrate on the quality, taste and strength of a beer.

'Stronger beer is becoming more popular, and we must take that into account. This is something we are looking at.'

Mr Marijnen said that while Heineken was carefully studying the changing habits of lager drinkers it was 'a bit strong' to say that they believed their lager sold in Britain was an 'embarrassment' because it was too weak.

However, an official company document recently referred to the less potent lager sold here as the 'deviant English brand'.

Company insiders said it 'damaged the worldwide reputation of its premium product sold elsewhere'.

However, despite its reputation as a 'weak' lager, Heineken has remained one of the best-known brands in the UK because of that original advertising slogan.

But Heineken has decided to allow a licensing contract with Interbrew, which brews the lager here, to run its course before severing the connection and 'repositioning premium and pricing it accordingly'. The brewer is still a family concern despite the death in January of 78-year-old Alfred 'Freddy' Heineken, who began work at his grandfather's brewery in 1942 and won control of the business 12 years later.

The company is now headed by his only daughter Charlene de Carvalho, a 48-year-old mother of five who lives in London with her merchant banker husband Michel.

She inherited her father's £ 2.96billion controlling share of the Heineken brewing empire.

Now only the Duke of Westminster, the Sainsbury family and food packaging billionaire Hans Rausing have bigger fortunes than the Carvalhos.

MORE ABOUT

Banking

Beer

Family Business

Heineken

Heineken refreshes its image

Read More