Heineken’s Nico Nusmeier leaves
Another one bites the dust. Nico Nusmeier, 50, who joined Heineken 26 years ago and became President of Heineken’s Central & Eastern Europe business (CEE) in 2005, has decided to leave Heineken and will be replaced by Derck van Karnebeek on 1 January 2012, Heineken announced on 29 November 2011. Derck van Karnebeek is currently Managing Director for Heineken in Romania.
The change at Heineken follows Carlsberg’s announcement last month that Isaac Sheps will become its new Senior Vice President for eastern Europe. Anheuser-Busch InBev, meanwhile, has appointed Stuart MacFarlane, formerly head of AB-InBev’s UK operations, to run its central and eastern European business from Moscow as of 1 January 2012.
It was not immediately clear why a Heineken veteran like Mr Nusmeier has decided to quit. There was no mention where he is moving to. All this could be interpreted that he had very strong personal motives to chuck it all in.
In the press release (29 November 2011) announcing Mr Nusmeier’s departure, Heineken’s CEO Francois van Boxmeer calls him "strong, professional colleague". This he certainly was, say those who did business with him.
That’s why Heineken’s decision not to make Mr Nusmeiser succeed Thomas de Man as Regional President of Heineken’s hugely profitable (and growing) Africa & Middle East business zone, when Mr de Man retired this summer, raised a few eyebrows.
In terms of volume Heineken’s central and eastern European unit is the second largest in the group (according to 2010 figures), behind western Europe and ahead of the Americas. Alas, in terms of profits it ranks fourth, far outshone by Heineken’s African business.
What is more, the outlook for Heineken in CEE is not rosy. Beer sales in the region are widely expected to drop over the coming months. Especially Poland is struggling, not least because of a sharp rise in cheap beer consumption, amounting to 25 percent of off-premise sales, it was reported. The overall beer market is stagnating and an upturn is only expected for 2012, Heineken’s rival Kompania Piwowarska (owned by SABMiller) reported on 21 November 2011.
Also, Heineken is currently in the process of creating a global business services organisation for the group. A financial shared services centre will be located in Kraków, Poland.
Consolidating common functions and systems to reduce costs and improve efficiency has become a must for globally operating companies. While off-shoring is now big business, its financial long-term benefits are by no means guaranteed – after the initial reduction in jobs. Diageo and InBev were the first in the spirits and beer industry to concentrate certain shared services in Budapest and Prague. Their "teething problems" were legion.
What might give Heineken reason to pause is that Mr Nusmeier is the second high-ranking executive to leave Heineken these past three months. At the end of August 2011 it was announced that Michiel Herkemij, President and CEO of Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma (part of FEMSA beer), a Mexican beer manufacturer which had been acquired by Heineken in 2010, would join the Sara Lee Corp.
Nico Nusmeier started with Heineken in September 1985 as a management trainee. In early 1990 he became Production Manager at Cagliari Brewery in Sardinia, Italy, from where he moved to the Bahamas as General Manager of Heineken’s Subsidiary Commonwealth Brewery.
