Mr. Leo Evers, Chief Executive Officer of Heineken Vietnam, said the new name will appear on the entire product packaging in January 2017.

The products produced by VBL will continue to circulate on the market in the first half of 2017. Their quality is consistent with the quality of other products bearing the new name Heineken Vietnam.

The organizational structure and management, production, sales model and property rights for the brands of Heineken, Tiger, Larue, BGI, Bivina, Desperados, Affligem and Strongbow Cider fermented apple juice will be maintained.

VBL was established in 1991 as a joint venture between Heineken Asia Pacific (HAP), which is headquartered in Singapore and Satra.

With the annual huge profits of up to VND4.1 trillion and annual tax revenue of VND12.6 trillion of VBL, the public is questioning whether the foreign partner in this joint venture is trying to acquire the shares of Satra and its first step is to deleting the brand Vietnam beer?

In 2012, Heineken spent $6.3 billion to buy back 40% stake in Fraser & Neave Group (F & N) Singapore in Asia Pacific Breweries (APB) - one of the largest brewers in Southeast Asia and the producer of the popular Tiger beer.

According to Euromonitor, more than 80% market share of the Vietnam's beer market is in the hands of the three groups - Sabeco, VBL (now Heineken) and Habeco.

The Saigon Beverage Corporation (Sabeco) holds more than 40% market shares. If Sabeco is the leading firm in the common segment, VBL is the leader in the premium segment.

In terms of beer consumption in Vietnam, it was 6.6l/person/year in 2010, 3.8 liters/ person/year in the period 2003-2005, and the figure is forecasted to reach 7 liters/person/year by 2025.

After 7 years, from the 8th place in Asia (2008) for beer consumption, in 2015 Vietnam became the leading contry in the region and the third in Asia for beer consumption.

This is the reason Heineken identified Vietnam as its 2nd most important market.

Nam Son