HEINEKEN Vietnam - Growing together with the country

HEINEKEN Vietnam’s leaders and special guests are toasting the 30 years of success in Vietnam

In 2021, HEINEKEN Vietnam turned 30 years. Originally a successful joint venture with Saigon Trading Group, the company has a proud history, growing from one brewery in Ho Chi Minh City in 1991 to six nationwide with 3,330 employees today.

HEINEKEN Vietnam takes the people on its growth journey in the country. It is currently creating nearly 200,000 jobs across the value chain and contributing to nearly 1 per cent of Vietnam’s total GDP – and it is consistently one of the top tax contributors.

Passion for quality and innovation

As a relentlessly innovative company, HEINEKEN Vietnam combines international expertise with local know-how and talent, and has been delighting Vietnamese consumers with a wide product portfolio for a variety of local tastes and drinking occasions, including Heineken®, Tiger, Larue, BIVINA, Bia Viet, and Strongbow.

“We are proud of the outstanding quality of our products, made right here in Vietnam. Our quality is consistently amongst the best in the Heineken world, so much that we have won the global internal quality award 12 times, including this year,” said managing director Alexander Koch.

HEINEKEN Vietnam has an innovative and entrepreneurial spirit that drives it to constantly bring or create new products for Vietnamese consumers. Whether that is launching Bia Viet during the pandemic, being the first producer of cider in Vietnam, or introducing non-alcoholic beer to support responsible drinking, it is committed to developing the Vietnamese beer market with the consumers at its heart.

Most recently, the Tiger brand invited Gen-Z consumers over 18 years of age to co-create Tiger Platinum – a wheat lager that celebrates their own mark on the world and caters to their particular taste and demands.

With the creativity of its marketers, in December last year, HEINEKEN Vietnam was named Marketer of the Year, while the Heineken® brand was named Brand of the Year by the Mobile Marketing Association.

HEINEKEN Vietnam has raised the bar in helping others, from supporting the natural environment to providing pandemic-related equipment

30 years of commitment to sustainability and beyond

“Sustainability and responsibility are the way we do business at HEINEKEN Vietnam. From day one, we have been committed to brewing a better Vietnam,” said Koch.

Currently, 56 per cent of the energy powering its breweries is renewable and 99 per cent of its waste and by-products are reused and/or recycled.

During the challenging recent years, the company has been supporting communities by donating ventilators and medical equipment for the treatment of COVID-19 patients, contributing to vaccine funds and providing essential support during natural disasters.

In January this year, as part of the annual “Warm Spring” programme, HEINEKEN Vietnam has been offering 4,000 sets of Lunar New Year gifts to families in 31 communities across the country.

“Warm Spring is our commitment to support the communities in which we operate,” said Holly Bostock, corporate affairs director of HEINEKEN Vietnam. “Organised every year, this programme – as its name suggests – aims at adding more warmth to the spring of people in need. We are happy to see that over the years, many more of our employees and business partners have joined this sharing culture of ours. Together, we can reach out to more people, touch more lives, and create more meaningful impact.”

With its continued efforts in sustainability and responsibility, HEINEKEN Vietnam has been recognised by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s corporate sustainability index as one of the top three most sustainable businesses in Vietnam every year since 2016.

“But we have big ambitions to raise the bar and stretch further for 2025, with the goal to hit 100 per cent renewable energy, reach zero waste, and be 100 per cent water-balanced,” Koch explained. “This last ambition is not easy. Beer is made of 95 per cent water and being water balanced means finding ways to return to nature the water used in the products.”

To support HEINEKEN Vietnam in this ambition and to commemorate its 30th anniversary, $1.3 million is being committed to supporting Vietnam’s natural environment, whether that be through planting trees or restoring wetlands, to help the environment return water to the soil and absorb carbon from the air. Its intention is to do this in the watersheds that support its breweries in Ho Chi Minh City and the capital of Hanoi.

The slogan of the 30th anniversary is “Growing Together with Vietnam”, and Koch truly believes that over the last 30 years HEINEKEN Vietnam has grown with not only its business partners, but also the nation as a whole – not only economically, but socially, responsibly, and sustainably. “I like to say we are 30 years young and not 30 years old – and just like the country, HEINEKEN Vietnam has a bright future ahead,” he said. “You can count on our continued commitment to innovation, sustainability, and creating shared value.”