Another reason to be a distributist. Remote cooperation with evil.

I'm not drinking Heineken.

I'm not drinking because I'm boycotting it for Ukraine, however.  I just don't like it.  It's skunky, in my view.  The same, I'd note, is true of Stella Artois, in my view, fairly frequently.  I love Stella's ads, but the beer. . . not so much.

I will say that Heineken's "NA", alcohol free, beer, if that's truly a beer, is really good.  This is probably explained by the fact that Heineken's trademark green bottles allow real beer to deteriorate, while the NA beer does not.  It's the effect of ultraviolet light on the beer, through the bottles, and is why most beer is bottled in dark brown bottles.  Heineken knows this and could bottle its beer in better bottles, but apparently its fans like to drink skunk water.

Canned Heineken, on the other hand, is pretty good.

Anyhow, I'm actually not drinking any beer at all right now as it is, as I've suspended doing so for Lent.

Others are foregoing Heineken for Ukraine, however.

Recent protest internet poster (I guess it's a poster), very cleverly done.

In March 2022, Heineken promised to leave Russia.  Lots of businesses were doing so at the time.  This fall, however, its Russian unit. . . yes the Dutch brewer has a Russian unit, instead launched 61 new soft drinks in the country which Coca Cola nad Pepsi Cola had excited.

Heineken set to launch soft drinks in Russia 

Sep 22, 2022 — Heineken is going to launch a range of carbonated soft drinks in Russia, where both The Coca-Cola Co. and PepsiCo have halted operations.

And now, a Boycott Heineken movement is on.

Let's be fair, let's hear from Heineken first.

Update on our exit from Russia 

Timeline of decision to exit Russia and where we are now 

24 February 2023

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In early March 2022, we announced that HEINEKEN would stop new investments and exports to Russia, ended the production, sale and advertising of the Heineken® brand, and announced that we will not accept any net financial benefits or profit (ring-fencing) from our business in Russia. 

At the end of March 2022, we made the decision to leave Russia. We were the first global brewer to do so. At the time, we were clear that the process of leaving would need to be handled very carefully with the ongoing safety and wellbeing of our employees at the front of our minds. We also faced – and continue to do so today – the very real risk that if we were to stop our operations or become insolvent, the Russian Government would take action against employees or decide to nationalise our business. 

Why the concern about nationalisation?

Shortly after we announced our decision to remove the Heineken® brand from the market, local operations in Russia received official warnings from Russian prosecutors that if this decision led to the suspension or closure of our business, it would be deemed to be an 'intentional bankruptcy’, which continues to be a criminal offence in Russia to this day.

At the same time, the Russian Government was drafting legislation that would make ‘intentional bankruptcy’ a trigger for nationalisation. While that legislation hasn’t yet been passed, the local laws still allow the government to appoint external management in the case of an ‘intentional bankruptcy.’ Insolvency is also a form of bankruptcy and would likely lead to the same outcome. We continue to interpret this risk to our people and business as significant.

Will the sale lead to a financial benefit to HEINEKEN?

No. First, HEINEKEN will not receive any royalties in the future related to the Russia business. Regarding the anticipated negative financial impact related to the sale of the business, on 28th March 2022, HEINEKEN expected an impairment and other non-cash exceptional charges of approximately EUR 0.4 billion in total. The final loss will be determined at the moment we transfer our business to a new owner. The amount will also partially depend on the Rouble vs. € exchange rate at the time of transfer. As stated in our 2022 Full Year Results press release (page 14), an impairment of €88 million was recorded for the period ended 31 December 2022. At the moment of disposal, the cumulative foreign exchange losses relating to Russia currently recorded in equity (€0.2 billion as per 31 December 2022) will be recognised in the income statement. The €88 million in addition to the €0.2 billion adds up to our current best estimate of circa €300 million of negative financial impact.

Will you return to Russia some day?

Our main focus right now is exiting Russia responsibly. We never comment on the details of ongoing negotiations. We have been clear from the outset that we will not profit from any sale or transfer of ownership of our business nor do we profit from the ongoing operations while we seek a buyer.

Humanitarian support for Ukraine

We thank all of our employees for the ongoing efforts to support the Ukrainian people. From opening their homes to refugees, raising funds and arranging donations, we are very proud of the response of our colleagues.  HEINEKEN has already donated over 1 million Euro via the company and employees to Habitat for Humanity to support humanitarian assistance for refugees. In addition, 700,000 Euro was granted via five local operating companies bordering Ukraine, who identified over 25 local NGOs that could provide immediate relief efforts. 

Next steps

As we move forward, we continue to prioritize care for our people during this transition while finding a suitable buyer in line with our values and in full compliance with international and local laws. Throughout, we have sought to balance our responsibilities in three areas: to protect our employees; to respect the law; and to find the best possible buyer that can give employees the best chance of secure future employment.

It is challenging to close a transaction in Russia at the moment as rules continue to shift. We aren’t dragging our feet and do wish things would move more quickly. With that said, all things remaining the same, we aim to reach an agreement in the first half of this year.

So, in essence, Heineken decided to leave, but the fear of its assets being taken combined with a fear that it'd be declared by Russia to be bankrupt has caused it to stay.  It's selling its holdings there.

Fair enough.

But how did Heineken get in this mess?  Did it just decide to ship some of its skunky green bottled product to Moscow and sell it on the streets?

Not hardly.  Heineken is a giant international suds manufacturer with "global" and local brands.  It's global ones are:

Amstel, billed, bizarrely, as “The world’s most local beer.” 

Sol, its Mexican beer.

Dos Equis, another Mexican beer.

Laguinitas, a once time local California microbrew.

Tiger, its Singaporean beer.

Birra Moretti, its Italiani beer.

Edelweiss, whose name recalls the Alps.

Red Stripe, a one time Jamaican brand.

Dačický, a Czech brand that had been independent from 1573 until Heineken bought it and closed the brewery that had been in operation all that time.

According to Wikipedia, it owns the following breweries:

Brasseries du Maroc, Morocco

Al Ahram Beverages Company, Egypt

Amstel Brewery, Jordan

Harar Brewery, Ethiopia

Bralirwa, Rwanda

Brarudi, Burundi

Brasserie Almaza, Lebanon

Brasseries de Bourbon, Réunion

Bralima, Democratic Republic of the Congo

Consolidated Breweries, Nigeria

Groupe Castel Algérie, Algeria

Nigerian Breweries, Nigeria

Société nouvelles des Brasseries SONOBRA, Tunisia

Sierra Leone Brewery Limited, Sierra Leone

Sedibeng Brewery, South Africa

Tango Brewery, Algeria

Cambodia Brewery Ltd (CBL) in Cambodia

Shanghai Asia Pacific Brewery in China

Hainan Asia Pacific Brewery Company Ltd in China

Guangzhou Asia Pacific Brewery in China (under construction)

Multi Bintang Indonesia in Indonesia

Lao Asia Pacific Brewery in Laos

Sungai Way Brewery in Malaysia

DB Breweries in New Zealand

South Pacific Brewery Ltd (SPB) in Papua New Guinea

Asia Pacific Breweries in Singapore

Asia Pacific Brewery Lanka Limited (APB Lanka) in Sri Lanka

Thai Asia Pacific Brewery in Thailand

Heineken Vietnam Brewery Co Ltd in Vietnam

Heineken Hanoi Brewery Co Ltd in Vietnam

United Breweries Ltd Bangalore in India

Brau Union Österreich in Austria

Syabar Brewing Company in Belarus

Alken-Maes in Belgium

Zagorka Brewery in Bulgaria

Karlovačka pivovara in Croatia

Starobrno in the Czech Republic

Federation Breweries in Gateshead, England (closed 2010)[23]

H. P. Bulmer in Hereford in England

John Smith's in Tadcaster, England

Royal Brewery in Manchester, England

Heineken France:

Brasserie de l'Espérance in Schiltigheim

Brasserie Pelforth in Mons-en-Baroeul

Brasserie de la Valentine in Marseille

Brasserie Fischer in Schiltigheim (closed 2009)

Brasserie Adelshoffen in Schiltigheim (closed 2000)

Brasserie Mutzig in Mutzig (closed 1989)

Athenian Brewery in Greece

Heineken Hungária in Hungary

Heineken Ireland at Lady's Well Brewery in Cork, Ireland

Heineken Italia in Italy

Heineken Nederland in the Netherlands

Żywiec Brewery in Poland

Central de Cervejas in Portugal

Heineken Romania in Romania

Heineken Brewery LLC in Russia

Heineken Srbija in Serbia

Caledonian Brewery, Edinburgh, Scotland

Heineken Slovensko in Slovakia

Heineken España in Spain, with breweries in Seville, Valencia, Jaén and Madrid

Heineken Switzerland in Switzerland

Calanda Bräu in Switzerland

Pivovarna Laško Union in Slovenia

Brasserie Nationale d'Haiti in Haiti

Commonwealth Brewery in the Bahamas

Cervejarias Kaiser in Brazil

Cervecería Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma in Mexico

Cervecerías Barú-Panama, S.A. in Panama

Desnoes & Geddes in Jamaica

Lagunitas Brewing Company in the United States

Windward & Leeward Brewery in Saint Lucia

Surinaamse Brouwerij in Suriname

And hence its problem.

Pity poor Heineken, it's so freaking big that it can't really do much.  If it decides to back up and go back to Holland, the Russians will cause it all sorts of problems.  Now it has to sell at something like a loss just not to have more of a loss.  And in Russia where all opposition to Putin and the war has been shut up, which has sent its army into a neighboring land to kill and rape, as Russian troops seem to commonly do, and which is kidnapping children, at least the locals can still order a bottle of skunk.

Now, its not as if the Russians couldn't get a beer, if they wanted one, anyhow, although reportedly the Russians are very bad at brewing beer.  Given that, actually, they might very well not get a beer but for Western companies with actual know how coming in to do it for them.  Goodness knows that current Russian industry seems to have not moved on much from decades ago in actual technology, so there's no real reason to figure to suppose they would have figured beer out, which everyone else on earth seems to have done.

Now, I don't think depriving Russians of a bad bottle of beer is going to win the war in Ukraine, but it is an interesting example of the remote cooperation with evil.  Once things get too big, their choices are too painful. They can't pull back, or out, without potentially falling to their deaths, much like certain Russians have been doing recently.

And, oddly, by pulling the top on a glass of Dos Equis in Denver, you are helping to keep things sort of normal, just a bit, in Russia.

A problem that wouldn't arise at all if you just bought a draft of beer brewed by your local friends and neighbors, which is now perfectly possible to do.

And that's just one reason to buy local beer.