New faces and structure to strengthen Brewery business

To strengthen its customer-service base and better adapt to the changing face of the international brewery business, Alfa Laval has beefed up the personnel rosta at its new Brewery headquarters in Soborg, Denmark and established a new regional competence centre in Shanghai, China.

The company made the transition from Brussels to Soborg in the beginning of this year after it became apparent that globalisation had changed the nature of international brewing. The move made sense in both business and customer terms, according to Kim Dalum, the newly-appointed Manager of Market Unit Brewery. “Brewing has changed from what was once an essentially local activity to a much more global one. Acquisitions and mergers have forged a number of giant brewers who now dominate the business, globally. Equally, at the low volume end of the business, there has been a rise in localised craft & specialists breweries. We needed to re-align our business to mirror this new reality.”

The company chose to headquarter itself in Soborg because it was already the location of its high-tech yeast and process module business and close to other key manufacturing centres. This will ensure a even closer cooperation between the brewery business unit and the engineering and manufacturing departments for the benefit of the customers. Alfa Laval has also restructured its management and sales teams at headquarter and local levels, adding more specialists to increase the strength of their overall customer offering. The regional competence centre in Shanghai will be the first regional hubs that will ensure close customer support on a regional and local basis.