Heineken is considering options for its South African wine business just three years after acquiring it, with all brands such as Nederburg and JC Le Roux under review.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In an indicator of the pace of change at the Dutch brewer, which recently hired outsider Chief Executive Officer Rafael Oliveira to lead a revamp, Heineken said it\u2019s looking at the relevance of wine in its South African portfolio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe are not making rash decisions on what to do, but we do have it under strategic review,\u201d Chief Financial Officer Harold van den Broek told analysts on a call Wednesday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He added that how the company will compete in certain wine segments \u201cis an active discussion with our South Africa business.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Van den Broek did not specify what options are under consideration or whether they include a sale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Beer and ready-to-drink volumes in South Africa grew by double digits in the third quarter, while wine remained under pressure, the company said Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe are really working very hard to bring volumes back into our business in South Africa,\u201d Van den Broek told analysts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Heineken acquired the wine brands as part of its \u20ac2.2 billion (R40.8 billion) purchase of South African wine and spirits maker Distell. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The transaction, agreed in 2021 and completed in 2023, combined Distell and Namibia Breweries with Heineken\u2019s existing South African operations to create Heineken Beverages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More than 5,400 employees from Distell and Namibia Breweries joined Heineken when the transaction was completed, according to the company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The deal was intended to give Heineken a broader drinks portfolio in the region and help it compete with rivals including Anheuser-Busch InBev SA and British spirits giant Diageo. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Instead, the enlarged business struggled with a complex integration and market-share losses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Heineken took a \u20ac491 million impairment on the business in 2023, less than a year after completing the transaction. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then-CEO Dolf van den Brink later acknowledged that the brewer had \u201cdropped the ball on a couple of commercial elements.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Wednesday, Heineken also reported that group volumes grew more than expected in the third quarter, boosted by strong demand for beer in Asia and a rebound in the Americas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Shares of Heineken rose as much as 2.2% on a more positive update. The company has underperformed rivals Carlsberg A\/S and AB InBev in recovering from a slump in beer demand after the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Heineken \u201chas strong foundations but we are not translating them into consistent growth and winning with consumers and customers as often as we should,\u201d Oliveira said in the results statement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He called for sharper execution, greater pace and accountability and said he would give more detail on his plans for the company when it reports full-year results.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Heineken is considering options for its South African wine business, just three years after the acquisition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":850027,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2115460842187554917","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2252357598917972","_sma_instagram_post_id":"18189762556410896","_sma_x_attempts":3,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[26971,15148,26970],"class_list":["post-881851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-harold-van-den-broek","tag-heineken","tag-jc-le-roux"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=881851"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881851\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":881852,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881851\/revisions\/881852"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/850027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=881851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=881851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=881851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}