Heineken Invites Distributors To 'Club Accelerate'

Company execs share brand highlights at its National Distributor Conference

A stage full of dancers move and sing to rhythmic, DJ-synthesized club music, as flashing green and white strobe lights spotlight live bongo drums and an engaged audience.

This lively party vibe was "Club Accelerate," Heineken USA's 2013 National Distributor Conference turned nightclub, at 8 a.m. one day in February at the Phoenix Convention Center. The cause for celebration was loud and clear: the company is taking its banner 2012 year and running with it this year and beyond.

"2012 made it exciting for all of us. Heineken Lager was back in the black for the first time in five years — not just in a couple of states, but in 32 states — and the goal in 2013 is all 50 states," Scott Blazek, senior vice president of sales for Heineken USA, said as he addressed the crowd of 1,500. "We're working harder than ever. Our plan is to take advantage of the momentum we have and accelerate our performance."

Heineken USA's year of good fortune in 2012 was in line with the beer category in general, according to the company's President and CEO Dolf van den Brink, who told the crowd that in 2012 the beer market grew "for the first time in a long time, and it was a broad-based recovery with almost all segments [showing growth], but especially imports by more than 3 percent."

Rather than viewing this as just a blip, van den Brink sees this as the dawn of a new age for beer overall. "I believe we're at a tipping point," he said. "There's an incredible dynamic now in beer. There are new players, new segments, new subsegments, new brands and many new SKUs."

With this new dynamic, though, comes new challenges, particularly sameness in the mainstream segment, SKU proliferation in the craft segment and diminished execution support in the imports segment. While these are the industry's collective challenges, they are also Heineken USA's hurdles. The company intends to align its business to address the same three challenges, van den Brink said.

In line with that, company executives shared brand highlights on tap for this year:

Heineken "Star Bottle" — The brewer's first packaging change in nearly 20 years is designed to be a more modern take on the iconic green bottle and intended to reinforce the brand's upscale status and make it a more relevant choice.

Dos Equis — This year, the brand celebrates "Dos de Mayo," a five-week program that takes the celebration of Cinco de Mayo to a new level by providing reasons to celebrate not just on May 5.

Newcastle — The company intends to almost triple its limited-edition volume with Newcastle Bombshell and Newcastle Werewolf.