Ex AB-InBev executive Alain Beyens becomes CEO of StarBev

It was the Belgian news magazine Trends which reported on 12 January 2010 that Mr Beyens had joined StarBev, the former central European business unit of AB-InBev that covers nine countries (Bosnia Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, and Slovakia) and represented a sales volume of 15 million hl in 2008.

Mr Beyens is no stranger to these markets. Before becoming Zone President Western Europe of AB-InBev in 2007, he was in charge of these self-same businesses.

Conspiracy theorists might get carried away by this news, assuming some shady manoeuvrings between AB-InBev and CVC to the effect that AB-InBev plans to keep its old business on a short leash.

However, nothing could be further from CVC’s intentions. CVC will have to turn this investment into a success story without having AB-InBev breathing down their necks.

Besides, Mr Beyens chucked it all in at AB-InBev. The fact that it took AB-InBev several weeks to appoint his successor corroborates our impression. So he would have been less than willing to try his luck with StarBev if CVC and AB-InBev had kept such close ties.

Of course, all of this is idle speculation. StarBev’s performance under Mr Beyens will have to speak for itself eventually.