Heineken is the latest multinational brand owner to make a consolidatory move, divesting the Dutch soft drinks business Vrumona to Royal Unibrew.
The transaction, announced earlier this week, will see Vrumona change hands for EUR300 [US$326.2m]. As well as a raft of domestic brands including Royal Club, Sisi and Sourcy Vitamin Water, the package also includes the Netherlands licence for PepsiCo’s beverage portfolio in the country.
Along with the consumer-facing aspects, Royal Unibrew will inherit a production facility in Bunnik that has an annual capacity of about 3.1m hectolitres. The Denmark-headquartered company, which is active in around 70 markets worldwide, will leverage the plant to “supports [its] global production footprint”.
“Vrumona is a leading soft drinks manufacturer, and it comes with a strong local organisation, which makes it a strategic very strong fit for Royal Unibrew,” said CEO Lars Jensen. “Vrumona will become a new growth platform for Royal Unibrew in continental Europe and is expected to drive organic earnings growth in the coming years.”
Heineken’s current CEO, Dolf van den Brink, spent four years of his career with Vrumona, as a trade marketeer and a senior brand director.
Similar portfolio tidying steps in recent weeks have seen Pernod Ricard sell blended Scotch Clan Campbell to Stock Spirits and Brown-Forman offload Finlandia vodka to Coca-Cola HBC.
In results for the first three months of 2023, reported in April, Heineken saw its sales climb 8.9% on the corresponding quarter a year earlier.
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