Is the proposed takeover of Banks Holdings Limited a threat to Barbados’ treasured Banks beer brand?
We want to expand our operations in the Central America and Caribbean area and we see Banks as a brand and Barbados as an opportunity for investment.
We have two objectives here: to develop Banks and to keep Banks as the local undisputed leader and keep on growing as a hub for exports for the Caribbean and Central America and even other countries that are close too.
The Banks brand is extremely strong and we like to have strong brands that are preferred for the populations in our portfolio and we want to develop it locally, and second, because we see the opportunity to use the country and the plant, the facility that is in the country today, to export, because it has idle capacity, and possibly to expand even more. So we want to use it as a hub for exports.
This is what should be very clear, we want to invest in Banks and the local market, we want to make sure that we increase exports for the country, and that the current shareholders have a huge opportunity. Ambev is a combination of two Brazilian breweries that have more than 130 years’ experience.
Ambev was formed back in the year 2000 and we have been growing so far, so today we have operations in Brazil, which is the biggest one, in Canada, we have operations in Central America, in the Caribbean and also in countries of Latin America, such as Argentina, Paruaguay, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador and so on.
So it’s an international company that has been expanding and has been learning to play in the local markets with local partners and the Dominican Republic experience has been a very successful one.
We have one plant in Cuba, one plant in Dominican Republic, one plant in St Vincent, and one plant in Dominica. This is where we have plants and we export to the other islands as well, so that’s our presence today in the Caribbean.
We are not only a beer company, we are a beverage company, so we have operations already outside of beer, we have drinks operations, we have juices, so we have different types of operations and we want to keep the operations as they are; this is our intention.
I see a combination of local growth focusing on Banks’ brand and exports with other brands. So it will be a combination and it will depend a lot on the environment as well.
The focus for the Barbados market is Banks, the leader, and this is one that we are going to exploit to its full potential.
Other brands we will deal with, if there is an opportunity, and we are also going to look for exports, but the focus for the local market is on Banks as we have done with Dominican Republic where we focus on the market leader and local beer.
The beer market is very regional, so depending on the country that we are talking about the macroeconomic situation and the competitive landscape is totally different.
So giving a general trend is very difficult because different countries have different realities at different levels.
But what I can say is that for the Central America and Caribbean region we want to grow our business aggressively in the next years to come.
• Eduardo Lacerda isvice-president of Ambev. He is responsible for Ambev’s Central American and Caribbean operations. The company has launched a bid to acquire Banks Holdings Limited.