Heineken’s green bottle is unmistakable for fans of the drink in Brazil, where most breweries work with brown glass. But what gives the brand its identity has become a challenge for distribution in the country, where the company is facing difficulties in finding the bottles, according to a source in the hotel sector consulted by DINHEIRO. The group was alerted by Heineken about the problem, which is affecting beer deliveries. At the beginning of the year, bars and restaurants in the chain, chaired by the executive who spoke to the reporter, received orders for beer cans, substitutes for bottles and long necks. Sought, Heineken declined to comment and claimed to be in a period of silence.
The scenario is the result of increased consumption and changing habits, which boosted an unforeseen demand by some companies, according to the Brazilian Glass Industry Association (Abividro). The entity states in a note that all contracts were fulfilled and only unscheduled purchases suffer from shortages. “The dynamics of glass production is inelastic. We only work with what is anticipated by the orders”, said Lucien Belmonte, president of the association. The rise in the dollar is another aggravating factor, since, although small, the share of companies that import glass packaging is also unable to migrate to the domestic market due to the lack of supply.
The situation should recover by the end of 2023, with a 30% expansion of industrial production capacity. French company Verallia, from Saint-Gobain’s packaging division, is investing R$ 500 million in a new oven at the Campo Bom (RS) plant, while Owens Illinois, the world’s largest manufacturer, will invest around R$ 1 billion in two new plants in Brazil.
Dolf van den Brink, global CEO of Heineken, should come to the country at the beginning of the year to follow the saga of green bottles. In the market, the solution was to verticalize. Ambev, the Dutch’s biggest competitor, will make an investment of R$ 870 million to build its second glass packaging factory. But the new plant, in Paraná, should only enter into operation in 2025, following the company’s strategy of, until then, working only with returnable packaging or made from recycled materials.
With an average investment of US$ 100 million, a production plant has the capacity to manufacture 350 tons of glass per day. Considering the long neck model, this production would represent around 2 million bottles per day. In Belmonte’s evaluation, the movement will be enough to relieve the industry next year. In 2022, companies must be alert to the risk of shortages.
Nothing New In the summer of economic recovery, bars and restaurants filled to capacity again. Abrasel, an entity in the sector, indicates that demand at the end of the year was 3% below that compared to 2019, which is already a significant advance for one of the activities most impacted by the pandemic. Beer consumption also rose: 8% in the last two years, according to Euromonitor data.
The change comes from the increased search for long neck and craft beers, associated with the habit of drinking at home. Despite the relatively positive momentum, it wasn’t just beer that was responsible for the bottle shortage. What most overloaded the industry was the wine market, whose consumption doubled in this period.
Percival Maricato, director of Abrasel, explains that this is not the first time that distribution is affected, although the phenomenon does not affect sales in the sector. “Substitute packaging supplies this consumption in bars and restaurants,” he said. For Heineken, however, the supply of the emblematic green bottle guarantees the brand’s presence in a disputed market like the Brazilian one. Therefore, the saga becomes crucial for breweries.
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