Who owns HEINEKEN?

HEINEKEN is owned by

Heineken was created in 1873 by Gerard Adriaan Heineken in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Nine years prior, Heineken had purchased the De Hooiberg brewery, which had been a popular brand in the Dutch capital since 1592. The brewery began by making top-fermented ales, but in the 1870s began experimenting with lagers. Heineken hired Dr. Hartog Elion, a former student of Louis Pasteur, to develop a lager yeast for the brand, and the Heineken lager was born.

Heineken beer began to outpace their competition through an aggressive pricing strategy, and by 1875 the beer was the biggest exporter to France. In 1917, Gerard Heineken’s son, Henry Pierre Heineken, took over the company, and ran it until 1940. In 1931, the company opened up a branch in Surabaya in the then colony of the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), which began the company’s global presence. That same year, Heineken partnered with soft drink company Fraser and Neave to create Malayan Breweries Limited in Singapore. That subsidiary, now completely owned by Heineken, is now known as Heineken Asia Pacific.

Heineken began exporting to the United States after prohibition, with the first shipment landing only three days after the ban had lifted.

In the 21st century, Heineken began purchasing several other breweries, first by teaming up with Carlsberg to acquire and divide the former brands of Scottish and Newcastle in 2007. Later, it purchased the Mexican company FEMSA in 2010, and the major American craft beer Lagunitas in 2015. The following year, it signed an agreement with Asia Brewery, owned by Chinese-Filipino billionaire Lucio Tan, to allow them to brew and distribute Heineken in the Philippines.