On the ground in Paraná state, the clearest sign of Brazil’s beer war is inside a brewhouse. Heineken is putting 865 million reais, about 183 million dollars, into expanding its Ponta Grossa brewery, a bet that its most important market worldwide deserves a much bigger footprint.
The Dutch brewer, the world’s second-largest after Anheuser-Busch InBev, will spend the money this year and next, focusing on its Heineken and Amstel labels at what is already the state’s third-largest brewing site. Output is set to climb by 75%.
“We are bringing forward by one year all the investments of our strategic plan. Brazil is a key market for us,” Mauricio Giamellaro, who runs Heineken’s Brazil business, told Reuters. “Basically, we are building a new brewery,” he added.
The scene is one of two giants squeezing for shelf space. Brazil matters more to Heineken’s sales than the United States or Europe, and the company says it has already trimmed the lead of Ambev, the Brazilian arm of Anheuser-Busch InBev. Since buying Japan’s Kirin operation in 2017, a deal worth 1.2 billion dollars, roughly 917.8 million pounds, that doubled its local output, Heineken now holds 22% of the market.
By nightfall the announcement carried a competitive echo. It came just a day after Ambev said it would put 2 billion reais toward a new brewery in northern Brazil, plus a malting factory in the southeast, a can-making unit and extra premium beer production lines. The race, in short, is on.
Sources
- Heineken to invest $244 million in Brazil by 2020 to double capacity: paper
- Heineken to invest 183 million dollars in Brazilian brewery expansion | Progresiv
Sources
- Heineken invests in Brazil for premium beer portfolio
- Heineken to invest $300 million in Brazil to expand premium beer…
