E-Malt.com News article: USA: Heineken expects increase in light beer 2007 sales and 135-155 mil euros cost cut

Brewer Heineken NV expects sales volume of its light beer, which it launched in the United States last March, to exceed one million hectoliters this year, a senior executive said, according to Reuters, March 21.

Rene Hooft Graafland, Heineken's chief financial officer, told Reuters in an interview that Heineken Premium Light sold 680,000 hectoliters during its first year, surprising the Dutch company, which had been expecting 400,000 hectoliters.

He said the company was working to get domestic light beer drinkers to "trade up" to a more expensive import.

"In the first year, it looks like it was really working," Graafland said. "If we are able to continue that -- and we are convinced that we can do that -- we plan for 2007 now to cross the one-million hectoliter mark."

Graafland said half the beer market in the United States belongs to so-called "light" beers, which have less alcohol and fewer calories. Of those, only 2 percent are imported, compared with 23 percent for regular-strength beers.

The company will start selling Heineken Premium Light, which is unique to the United States, in cans this year, Graafland said.

The best-selling beer in the United States is Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc.'s Bud Light and the best- selling import is Corona, made by Modelo and distributed in the United States by a joint venture of the Mexican brewer and Constellation Brands Inc. Other popular imported light beers include Corona Light and Amstel Light.

While the company is pushing new products in its international markets, it is also focusing on cutting costs closer to home.

Rene Hooft Graafland told that Heineken still plans to meet its cost-savings target of 450 million euros, or 200 million euros on a net basis, by 2008. He said 55 percent to 60 percent or 135 million to 155 million euros of those cuts will be completed by year-end.

Heineken shaved off 114 million euros in 2006 in part by closing a bottling plant in Italy and breweries in Poland and Slovakia, the CFO said. He added Heineken planned to save between 135 million and 155 million euros in 2007, which would make the plan 55 percent to 60 percent complete.


23 March, 2007