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“We are shocked and deeply saddened to watch the war in Ukraine continue to unfold and intensify” – Heineken NV
On March 28 the Dutch beer giant announced plans to sell off its Russia business after a strategic review concluded it was “no longer sustainable nor viable in the current environment.”
However, Heineken will nonetheless maintain limited operations in Russia over fears that Russian President Vladimir Putin might attempt to nationalize the business in retaliation.
Reacting to the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, Heineken, the largest beer producer in Europe, halted all its operations in Russia for the first time in 20 years on March 9.
The Amsterdam, Netherlands-headquartered brewing giant currently owns seven breweries and employs 1,800 workers in Russia…
This from Heineken NV….
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We are shocked and deeply saddened to watch the war in Ukraine continue to unfold and intensify.
We earlier announced that HEINEKEN stopped 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 from our business in Russia.
Following the previously announced strategic review of our operations, we have concluded that HEINEKEN’s ownership of the business in Russia is no longer sustainable nor viable in the current environment. As a result, we have decided to leave Russia.
We aim for an orderly transfer of our business to a new owner in full compliance with international and local laws. To ensure the ongoing safety and wellbeing of our employees and to minimize the risk of nationalization, we concluded that it is essential that we continue with the recently reduced operations during this transition period.
In all circumstances we guarantee the salaries of our 1,800 employees will be paid to the end of 2022 and will do our utmost to safeguard their future employment.
We will not profit from any transfer of ownership and we expect an impairment and other non-cash exceptional charges of approximately €0.4 billion in total.
Upon completion of the transfer HEINEKEN will no longer have a presence in Russia.
We continue to hope that a path to a peaceful outcome emerges in the near term.
“We stand with the Ukrainian people and our hearts go out to all those affected,” Heineken said in an earlier statement signed by CEO Dolf van den Brink.
‘The Russian Government’s war against Ukraine is an unprovoked and completely unjustified attack. ‘We very much hope that a path to a peaceful outcome emerges.”
Heineken is but the latest international company taking a hard stand against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“More than 400 Western companies have already left Russia over the Ukraine war,” according to the NY Post,” with many citing operational difficulties or a moral objection to the war as the catalyst for their decisions.”
