Alain Beyens ousted by StarBev’s new owner
The Belgian Mr Beyens, 50, wanted to be CEO of a company himself. That’s why he left AB-InBev for StarBev when AB-InBev sold its central European unit to private equity firm CVC in 2009.
In so doing, he also forfeited a super bonus of over EUR 24 million in current terms, the Belgian magazine Trends wrote recently. That would have been his share in the big jackpot awaiting AB-InBev’s top executives if they bring down the brewer’s debt load to a certain level. But Mr Beyens’ ambition was cut short after only two years when StarBev’s new owner Molson Coors announced an executive shakeup on 8 May 2012 as part of the StarBev purchase for USD 3.54 billion.
Mr Beyens will leave his post at StarBev once the transaction is completed to ponder his next career move as board member of Belgian brewer Duvel Moortgat.
He will replaced by Molson Coors’ very own Mark Hunter, 48, who has been in the industry for 20 years and since 2007 has headed the brewer’s UK and Ireland business. Formerly, he was Chief Commercial Officer at Molson Coors Canada.
Stewart Glendinning, currently Global Chief Financial Officer for Molson Coors, will replace Mr Hunter in the UK role.
Molson Coors said StarBev had generated 2011 sales of approximately USD 953 million and an EBITDA of USD 322 million. The purchase price represents a multiple of just under 11x EBITDA.
The 13.3 million hl brewer StarBev employs 4100 people and brews beer at nine plants in the Czech Republic, Serbia, Croatia, Romania, Bulgaria and Montenegro. As BRAUWELT International wrote at the time of the acquisition, StarBev’s business and share vary greatly across the region, depending on the country, which will make the integration challenge more daunting for Molson Coors.
Through the acquisition of StarBev, Molson Coors is trying to push outside its base of Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom to offset declining consumption.
On 8 May 2012 Molson Coors reported lower-than-expected sales for the first quarter, hurt by losing some market share in Canada – a market in which it controlled some 40 percent of sales in 2011.
The maker of Molson Canadian, Coors Light and Blue Moon beers lost half a point of market share in Canada in the quarter, as its sales to retailers fell 0.5 percent amid industry growth of 1.3 percent.
Molson Coors said net income was USD 79.4 million, down from USD 82.6 million a year earlier.
Sales rose 0.1 percent to USD 691.4 million. Molson Coors sold 9.9 million hl of beer in the quarter, a decrease of 0.4 percent.
