Asia Brewery and Heineken have announced that they have agreed to change the structure of their business partnership in the Philippines.

In a declaration to the Philippine Stock Exchange last Wednesday (14th October) Asia Brewery and Heineken announced they would move from their current joint venture to a “new partnership structure” which would involve Heineken establishing its own sales and marketing office based in Manila.

The current joint venture, AB Heineken Philippines, has been in place since 2016 and is owned 50-50 by Heineken International B.V. and tycoon Lucio Tan’s Asia Brewery Inc. Under the existing arrangement AB Heineken Philippines produces and markets both Heineken and Asia Brewery brands.

AB Heineken Philippines brew Heineken, Tiger and a range of Asia Brewery homegrown brands

The new partnership will still see Heineken® and Tiger® beer still being brewed at the Asia Breweries facility in Laguna (Metro Manila), but the sales and marketing of the beer will be handled by a separate Heineken owned company.

Asia Breweries would continue to brew it’s core Beer na Beer, Colt 45 and Brew Kettle brands at the Laguna brewery.

It is believed in the relationship has been changed so as to enable the two breweries to focus on their own branding and market penetration strategies.

The decoupling of the two companies assets and launch of the new relationship is expected to be completed by the end of December 2020.