Message in Heineken bottle leads loyalist to top
New DB chief Peter Simons is not there to make waves but help build on strengths, he tells Holly Ryan
New DB Breweries managing director Peter Simons reckons he bleeds the green of one of his favourite brands, Heineken. Having spent most of his life in roles directly or indirectly with the beer company, this isn’t surprising.
Headhunted by the international brand as a sales rep in The Netherlands in 1991, the 56-year-old’s career with Heineken has taken him around the world — from Amsterdam to Africa, Vienna to Vietnam and now New Zealand.
“It’s been a 26-year rollercoaster,” Simons says.
“The longer you are in business, the more you think you know but on the other side the more you learn.”
Managing a brewery is a long way from being a doctor which he says was his original dream, but after running a restaurant in his home country in The Netherlands and dealing with Heineken, they asked him to come on board.
Simons’ office hasn’t changed much since his predecessor Andy Routley left six months ago for a job with Heineken globally.
Product posters decorate the walls, the Heineken branded couches sit in the corner and a shelf on one side features a range of the company’s beer and cider products.
Simons hasn’t been brought in to make big changes, he says, but rather as a chance for a fresh pair of eyes.
“The change was not because it wasn’t going well, Andy had been here for some time and he was up for a new role,” Simons says.
“I didn’t get given a clear task of, this is what you need to do. It was very much more around the fact that I have a good understanding of the business models and could bring some new thinking, and that’s what we have been doing.”
After his previous three-year role in Hanoi, Vietnam, in what he describes as a developing mainstream beer market, Simons says the challenges in New Zealand are quite different.
Most obviously in a developed alcohol market, the issue is decline of mainstream beer consumption.
In the past year, the total volume of beer available for consumption fell 1.2 per cent based on data from Statistics NZ, although beer above 5 per cent strength, which would include most craft beers, rose for the fourth year consecutively, up by 34 per cent.
In comparison with competitor Lion, DB Breweries does not sell spirits or ready-to-drink bottles and cans, instead focusing on beer and cider.
Although Simons has not ruled out expanding the company’s main product portfolio, he says beer and cider are its growth opportunities.
“The challenge with a broad portfolio is where do you focus? There are pros but from an execution point of view there are also some challenges,” he says.
“My view for DB at this moment is we are very clear on our strategy and what we need to do, so let’s really focus on that for now.
“There will always be more ideas than you can execute, that is reality, so you need to make choices.”
Simons says the company still faces challenges in maintaining its mainstream beer market given that it was still a big portion of its business, but the focus across the industry was on the premium category in beer, mainly craft.
Other major growth areas were in low calorie and low alcohol drinks, which consumers were willing to pay more for, as well as the cider category which he says is still young in New Zealand.
“[Cider] is still relatively small in this market but it’s growing faster than beer and that’s why we have a majority of share and will continue to drive that category,” he says.
In this sector of the market New Zealand is leading the world, with several of its products, including DB Breweries’ Orchard Thieves range, now sold globally. “Orchard Thieves is now one of the biggest cider brands in the world so if you look at craft like Monteiths, we export it to China, Korea and Europe as an everyday craft and people love it,” he says.
“Our local craft manager Grant became the global craft manager for Heineken worldwide so we’re not only moving products, we’re moving people through the world of Heineken.”
Projects like its Brewtroleum have also become best practice globally.
DB’s Export Brewtroleum is a biofuel made from the yeast left over after brewing DB Export.
The company can produce 300,000 litres of the clean-burning biofuel from 58,000 litres of leftover yeast slurry, which is then sold at Gull stations across New Zealand.
The project netted DB a swathe of awards.
Simons doesn’t seem likely to cause waves in the industry.
He brushes off comments about his competitors and aside from focusing on growing sales in DB’s core beer and cider categories, he isn’t forthcoming on major plans for the business.
Despite this he is obviously seen as a steady hand in the industry.
Headhunted for most of his roles, he has gone where the company asked.
Even in his current role he is not sure how long his tenure will be if he is asked to go somewhere else.
“I wouldn’t like to leave too quickly because I think there is still a lot to see, but it all depends a bit on what Heineken needs,” he says.
“That’s the reality if you’re in a corporate world you cannot always make the choices where to go, but that’s also what I like because I like to be challenged.”
The turning point for Simons came in 1991 when he was asked to head up the Heineken export division in Africa.
At the time he was conflicted, happy in his job and unwilling to change career tracks.
Looking back however he describes it as the best decision he made.
“If I hadn’t gone and done that I would have stuck in that track and there is only as much as you can see, so that really forced me to go into the export organisation,” he said.
“I’m grateful for that for the rest of my life because it opened up my eyes to different operating models but also gave me the chance to start working in South Africa and after that to keep travelling with Heineken.”
Asked what he does outside of work, Simons laughs. He is clearly a family man but also he admits, a workaholic.
“One of my goals while I’m in New Zealand is to try and learn to have a better work-life balance — it’s something you Kiwis do well. As my wife says, ‘Pete it’s first Heineken and then Heineken and then Heineken and then me’,” he says.
Simons and his wife Marin have been married 30 years and the little spare time he has is spent outdoors, walking, boating or riding his Fatboy Harley Davidson with her.
He speaks proudly of his three sons who are living in various parts of the world, and his new great love is a guide dog puppy Whiz which he and Marin are looking after until she is old enough to go into training.
Simons runs to clear his head, he walks on the beach, his drink will depend on his meal although his go-to is Heineken.
In every respect Simons seems a normal, inauspicious guy.
He is clearly well respected, and time will tell what mark he leaves on the New Zealand brewing giant.