Heineken Ethiopia BFM 78

HEINEKEN ETHIOPIA

LOOKING TO THE LONG TERM

HEINEKEN ETHIOPIA

WE SEE HOW HEINEKEN HAS ENTERED THE ETHIOPIAN MARKET WITH A LONG-TERM STRATEGY AND THE FLEXIBILITY NECESSARY TO MEET UNFORESEEN CHALLENGES.

LOOKING TO THE

LONG TERM PROJECT MANAGED BY: JOHN HOLLIMAN

Heineken entered the Ethiopian market in 2012 by acquiring two previously state-owned breweries.

Only two years later the beverage company built a new state-of-theart facility that was triple the size of its previous breweries. From the beginning, Heineken has been extremely serious about building its market in Ethiopia as a long-running concern.

T

he Heineken brand itself is one of the first and best-known international brands. Next to that, we have a portfolio of brands because we had the brands of the existing breweries we bought,” says Alexander Brinkerink, the Supply Chain Director for the firm. “We’re the only company here with an international brand and a portfolio of products to cater to all tastes.”

While Ethiopia is, without doubt, an appealing market for Heineken, moving into that market has not been a completely smooth ride.

“Ethiopia presents some difficult challenges as a landlocked developing country.

So, it is not always easy to bring raw materials and construction materials into the country. The road network is not as good as some other countries,” Brinkerink admits. “However, in comparison to other developing countries, Ethiopia is actually doing quite well with steady economic growth, a welleducated population, and the high-speed modern train line all the way to the city of Addis Ababa. All in all, we believe this is a great place to be as a brewer.”

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labels quality at its best!

Company Vision “To Become the World Class Local Commercial Labels and Packaging materials Supplying Partner” Company Mission Statement “To Be the Most trusted and Reliable Supply partner with outstanding customer service, on time delivery at the most competitive price”

QuaLabels Manufacturers PLC is a leading Company in the Packaging and Printing Industry in Ethiopia. A businessto-business (B2B) venture that started in 2016 and has evolved by supporting its customers’ growth, every time!

Our success mainly lays on our core strength of humbly understanding our customers’ short terms and long terms goals and maintaining continuous dialogues to address them accordingly.

QuaLabels is an indigenous company that has heavily invested in state-of-the art machineries from world renowned manufacturers that provide the most reliable packaging capability and production efficiency.

QuaLabels has continued growing its customer base by expanding and diversifying its portfolio through a continuous investment strategy that provides a competitive edge.

From paper packaging for pharmaceuticals, personal care and beer labels production, that has evolved in an extended portfolio comprising plastic film labels for soft drinks, water and juices’ production incorporating plastic film packaging for snacks, coffee export, powder detergents, confectionaries, spices and more.

Our most important asset are our amazing diverse people with outstanding work ethics: gender-balanced, great combination of young and seasoned employees, mostly local with few expatriate mentors ensuring the continuous transfer of skills through a strong succession planning strategy.

Quality comes as a top priority in everything we do which is the reason why our company is predominantly called Qua for Quality and Labels for labels. We cannot compromise on Quality and we will always meet and exceed customers’ expectations.

At QuaLabels, we believe in supporting our local communities by creating job opportunities while developing youth’s capacity and building a sustainable infrastructure that ensures environmental benefits.

QuaLabels is proud to be “The World Class Local Commercia Labels & Packaging materials Supplying Partner” to Heineken Ethiopia.

Come and visit us; you would leave inspired by our enthusiastic team’s world class quality output.

Contact us: P. O. Box 3121 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Tel: +251 -11-667 9631 Email: info@QuaLabels.com www.QuaLabels.com

HEINEKEN ETHIOPIA

Brinkerink joined Heineken Ethiopia in 2018, and from the start, he was impressed by the well-trained, highly-motivated people he found there. He credits that to the holistic approach to training Heineken puts its people through.

“That is partially because of the effort we put into training by bringing people from other Heineken breweries in Africa but also training people by sending them abroad to our other breweries in Africa to learn for themselves how to operate a brewery,” Brinkerink explains.

“Part of the investment at the new facility has been a training school with a number of classrooms covering all aspects of our work - packaging, beer, maintenance.

Students can practice live with the correct tools, and without Covid-19 right now we would have completed a small microbrewery, all manual. We train our guys to be ready for highly automated equipment but also give recruits that hands-on experience.”

READY FOR COVID-19

Heineken Ethiopia, like many businesses, recently encountered new challenges in the form of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“These are weird times,” as Brinkerink points out. Ethiopia was fortunate in that its position meant the pandemic was delayed in reaching the country- they did not have their first case until mid-March, and even by May, they had only one or two hundred

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“WE’RE THE ONLY COMPANY HERE WITH AN INTERNATIONAL BRAND AND A PORTFOLIO OF PRODUCTS TO CATER TO ALL TASTES.” cases. However, from the very beginning, Heineken Ethiopia was laying the groundwork for their response to the virus.

“It’s only in the last three to four weeks we’ve seen more exponential growth. We’re at the beginning of the curve while other countries are in recovery,” Brinkerink says. “We knew Covid-19 existed, so as of January we have been preparing ourselves and our staff, and when we had our first case in Ethiopia, we had action plans ready. We have been setting things up to allow people to work from home, which is not always easy because phone and internet connections can be flawed here.

We put handwashing stations throughout our breweries.

We also distributed soap to the communities around the breweries knowing our people are living there. We have distributed face masks for our staff, as well as indirect staff, the guards, people serving food in the cafeteria. It makes no difference where you come from if you work in our breweries you get our support.”

It is clear how proud Brinkerink is of the way his company, and community, have adapted to the challenges of the pandemic.

“We’re really on top of things, sharing information on what Covid-19 is, where it comes from, how to keep your distance and wash your hands.

We’re staggering shifts so that not everyone comes into the

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HEINEKEN ETHIOPIA

“PART OF THE INVESTMENT AT THE NEW FACILITY HAS BEEN A TRAINING SCHOOL WITH A NUMBER OF CLASSROOMS COVERING ALL ASPECTS OF OUR WORK - PACKAGING, BEER, MAINTENANCE. STUDENTS CAN PRACTICE LIVE WITH THE CORRECT TOOLS, AND WITHOUT COVID-19 RIGHT NOW WE WOULD HAVE COMPLETED A SMALL MICROBREWERY, ALL MANUAL. WE TRAIN OUR GUYS TO BE READY FOR HIGHLY AUTOMATED EQUIPMENT BUT ALSO GIVE RECRUITS THAT HANDS-ON EXPERIENCE.”

canteen at once. I’m really proud of our team because everyone responded so efficiently,” he says. “For instance, in Ethiopian culture eating is something that absolutely happens together.

It’s very common for a few colleagues to have one big plate of food to share. To tell people they’re not allowed to do that and have their own plate and sit at a distance, to keep themselves and their colleagues safe, it’s hard, but people listen and people do what’s necessary. The future is difficult to predict, though. COVID is new for the whole world and time will tell whether we have done all the right things.”

ETHIOPIAN BARLEY

Going forward, Brinkerink expects to be able to build on

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PERFECT SOLUTIONS DO NOT STOP US FROM CONTINUING TO WORK ON OUR IDEAS.

As a leading innovator, we have one prime characteristic: We are never satisfied.

At KHS, we are thus always proud of what we have achieved – but we also immediately start to question it and think ahead.

With the aim of constantly advancing and always improving – and of providing our customers with new, intelligent systems time and again. Which we then, of course, develop further. khs.com/products

National Oil Ethiopia Plc. (NOC) Tel. +251-11-663-9494/91/93 Fax 251-11-663-9495 Cape Verde St., P.O. Box 951, Code 1250, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

8 | BUSINESS FOCUS MAGAZINE

BUSINESSFOCUSMAGAZINE.COM

Company Overview CGF CROWN CORK MANUFACTURING PLC, a leading manufacturer of crown corks in Ethiopia with more than 8 years’ experience, equipped with the state of the art production facilities guided with a modern management system.

Vision statement To be a leading brand and largest packaging solution producer for beverage industries in East Africa by 2025.

Mission statement To provide innovative, competitive, and quality products and services to its esteemed customers with excellence, profitably, and socially responsible manner.

COUNTRIES SERVED: • KENYA • TANZANIA • • ETHIOPIA •

HEADQUARTERS Westlands Business Park Chiromo Lane, 7th Floor Nairobi, Kenya

Crown Cork Manufacturing PLC Balaker Tower, Gotera, 6th Floor, Room No. 605, Addis Ababa, Ethihopia

+254 722 330476

Phone: (+251) 114 622066 Fax: (+251) 114 622176 Email: gmcc@cgfcrowncork.com

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CONTACT SALES & MARKETING DIRECTOR TREVOR GRETSINGER t.gretsinger@ceomediagroup.com www.businessfocusmagazine.com

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HEINEKEN ETHIOPIA

the foundation of the fantastic people Ethiopia offers to achieve great things in the sector.

“Ethiopia is a fantastic country with strong underlying economic growth, in the short term slowed down by Covid-19, but in the long term a market where the GDP will continue to grow and money will be available to enjoy a beer,” he says.

That growth, for Brinkerink, is not simply a matter of sales or market share, however.

Heineken is looking to build a lasting enterprise in the country.

“When we invest here, we invest not only in breweries but in a programme of local sourcing of barley,” Brinkerink explains. “Investing in a huge

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HEINEKEN ETHIOPIA

state of the art brewery and in agriculture is a long-term commitment, and we have made a long-term commitment to grow with Ethiopia.”

This is an important step, especially considering the odd position of Ethiopia’s barleygrowing sector.

“The interesting thing is for a long time it’s been more expensive to buy barley locally than import it, but we’re here for the long-term,” Brinkerink points out.

It is an issue Heineken is fully engaged with.

“What we’ve done is train our own staff as well as farmers in a joint effort between EUCORD, IFC, and the Dutch Ministry

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“WE’RE IN ETHIOPIA FOR THE LONG TERM; EVEN THOUGH IMPORT OF BARLEY IS AT TIMES CHEAPER, WE WANT TO WORK WITH THESE FARMERS TO IMPROVE THE LOCAL BARLEY SUPPLY CHAIN FOR THE LONG RUN.”

of Foreign Affairs, and rolling forward a local malting plant will be part of that. We’re providing seed, training, support to over 40,000 farmers on a yearly basis,” Brinkerink points out.

“I’ve visited some of those farmers myself, it’s beautiful to see our people taking this new way of working onboard. They’re getting to buy new sheds to store barley, new tractors some of them. If we’d only looked at short-term costs we’d have never done this, but long-term this will work. It’s not directly linked to the brewery but I’m very proud we’re building this long-term sustainable future.

It’s good to know you’re making a difference.”

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HEINEKEN ETHIOPIA

WWW.HEINEKENETHIOPIA.COM