“I wanted to be the captain on the ship”

Giving an outline of his strategy for StarBev, Mr Beyens said that he was not to continue with AB-InBev’s but that he would pursue his own with a local team. StarBev’s headquarters will remain in Prague.

Because of the economic crisis which has hit markets like Romania very hard – remittances by more than two million Romanians living abroad almost dried up in 2009 – sales in the premium segment have been affected adversely. As a consequence Mr Beyens plans to “maximise volumes in all market segments”, by which he can only mean pushing his B brands and his offerings in the cheap beer segment. “We need to differentiate brands and packaging. There is no good price policy in place yet”, he said.

He also intends to develop his Czech pils Staropramen internationally and in his own markets. Whether the world is really waiting for another premium Czech pils brand remains to be seen, especially if we consider how hard Pilsner Urquell (SABMiller) and Budweiser Budvar have had to push to find recognition.

Most likely, Mr Beyens, in promoting Staropramen hopes to reduce his dependency on AB-InBev’s brands like Stella and Beck’s which he brews under license – and for which he has to pay AB-InBev royalties and fees.

More immediately he hopes to position Staropramen in markets like Poland, where StarBev needs to build distribution first. He admitted that StarBev will be a late-comer to the Polish beer market (the biggest beer market in central Europe), thus lodging an indirect criticism against InBev for its earlier reluctance to enter this market when it had a chance.

However, Mr Beyens added that in principle he would be prepared to do acquisitions when and where necessary.

The first quarter 2010 proved to be difficult in StarBev’s markets, he reported, but now things are brightening up. He also announced the launch of new products later this year.

As for keeping the business “warm” for AB-InBev – the brewer has the right of first offer to reacquire the business should CVC decide to sell in the future – Mr Beyens refused to be drawn out on CVC’s exit plans, stressing instead his overall intention to grow market share.

In October 2009, CVC Capital Partners acquired AB-InBev’s operations in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia and Slovakia in an USD 2.2 billion deal and additional rights to a future payment estimated to be as much as USD 800 million contingent on CVC’s return on its initial investment. The breweries, which produced 13 million hl and employed 4,600 people in 2009, were named StarBev.

StarBev also brews and/or distributes Stella Artois, Beck’s, Löwenbräu, Hoegaarden, Spaten and Leffe in the above countries under license from AB-InBev. AB-InBev has retained the rights to brew and distribute Staropramen in several countries including Ukraine, Russia, the U.S., Germany and the UK.