Heineken's CEO van den Brink steps down

Heineken CEO Dolf van den Brink would step down on May 31 after nearly six years of leading the Dutch brewer, the beer maker said on Monday, as the industry battles to get drinkers buying more beer.

CEO Van den Brink took the ‌helm at the ‌world's second largest beer maker in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic in June 2020, and is also chair of its executive board.

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Since his arrival, ‌​Van den Brink has taken the organization through a turbulent period marked first by the pandemic and then by huge cost inflation and falling sales that hurt margins, the company's share price and investor returns.

The Heineken board will now start a search to appoint a successor, which makes its namesake lager alongside Tiger and Amstel, the company's statement said. ​Though, Van den Brink has agreed to remain available as an advisor for ​eight months from June. Van den Brink and chairman of the supervisory board, Peter Wennink, said now was ‌the right moment ‍for Heineken to appoint new leadership. In October, the beer major set a new strategy covering the years ‍until 2030.

Heineken has "reached a stage where a transition in leadership ‌will best serve the company in further executing its long-term ambitions", van den Brink said in the statement, adding he remains fully focused on executing that strategy until his departure.

Heineken's shares fell almost 3% in early trade.

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BEER SALES FALLING

Following a number of consumer company CEOs departing from their jobs, Van den Brink is the latest in the string to leave Heineken after a difficult few years for the sector as consumer finances came under strain from high costs of living. Brewers around the world have struggled to sell more beer, with hopes of a sales revival repeatedly ‍knocked off course by everything as bad weather and political uncertainty casts its eye.

Adding to this, worries around the rise of new competitors, the emergence of weight-loss drugs that could weigh on food and drink ‍sales, and shifting attitudes ⁠to drinking, especially among ⁠younger people, are clouding the sector's future.

Under CEO van den Brink, Heineken has also faced a series of disruptions in key growth markets like Nigeria and Vietnam. These disruptions have weighed on results, as the beer maker is punished by investors for years for missing the mark on its forward-looking guidance.

Investors welcomed Heineken's strategic update in October, which promised them that the company will make changes including focusing resources on certain brands and markets. But some sources told Reuters Heineken needs to prove it can deliver.

Van den Brink arrived "with high expectations, but Heineken has not delivered on them", RBC Capital Markets analyst James Edwardes Jones told Reuters. "Perhaps this change at the top is what Heineken needs".


(With inputs from Reuters)