	heineken sees higher profits wider penetration dutch brewer heineken nv said it hoped to maintain for a number of years a similar ings growth to the pct increase in net profit achieved in despite continuing investments in a reorganization program and efforts to extend world penetration heineken last month reported a net profit of mln guilders after mln in chairman freddie heineken said the company europe s leading beer producer with six pct of market share in said sales increased by pct to mln hectoliters the volume increase was due mainly to a rise in the u s where the brand amstel lite saw great demand and in europe where sales accounted for pct of the total turnover despite losses in guilder terms due to weaker foreign currencies rose by pct to billion guilders further consolidation of foreign companies including the increase of its stake in leading spanish brewery el aguila s a to pct new ventures and modernization particularly in french and spanish interests eroded profit margins the company still planned to invest mln guilders this year in restructuring and marketing heineken said heineken s spanish activities should start yielding profit next year heineken said adding that its french operations had already turned to profit after vast rationalization last year vice chairman gerard van schaik said the decision by the european court of justice in luxembourg to allow foreign beer into the closed west german market europe s biggest beer market offered interesting possibilities for heineken we have the beer but distribution and sales is the important point van schaik said adding that since the ruling heineken had been inundated by german traders seeking joint ventures the question is not if we want to penetrate the german market but how we are to do it van schaik said adding that while the widely traveled germans seemed to be developing a taste for foreign beer the internal structure was very regionalized heineken board member hans coebergh responsible for african operations said he saw africa as one of the most important beer growth markets in the long term he said the company present in africa since and with majority stakes in six breweries and interests in was hampered by the lack of hard currencies there africa where beer consumption averages only nine liters per head per year and sales are limited by import restrictions and currency risks nonetheless accounted for pct of total sales on site production is rendered expensive by the high price of imports of essential ingredients but heineken scientists have been looking at other possibilities to balance the costs of imported malt heinken launched on the nigerian market a new beer made of pct sorghum which had sold successfully coebergh said heineken is urging farmers to grow the traditional raw materials but coebergh noted that banana and palm beer were popular in rwanda this is a possibility but we could not possibly achieve the heineken flavor coebergh said chairman heineken said the company s seven year efforts to penetrate the soviet market had finally resulted this week in a contract that relaxed some of the restrictions they faced but again a lack of hard currencies limited heineken s market potential heineken now has seven bars in moscow that are enjoying good sales but the bars only accept western money reuter 
