HEINEKEN Vietnam To Expand Vung Tau Brewery In New $142 Million Investment

Just three months after it opened its Ba Ria-Vung Tau brewery, HEINEKEN Vietnam is already injecting a new multi-million dollar investment for its expansion. The brewery, currently the largest brewery in Southeast Asia, opened in September to mark HEINEKEN’s increasing operations in the country.

In a press conference in late November, the Dutch-owned brewery signed a memorandum of understanding with Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and the People’s Committee of Ba Ria–Vung Tau Province.

According to the MOU, HEINEKEN Vietnam will invest a further 142 million USD into the expansion of the Vung Tau Brewery within three years, from 2023 to 2025. The additional funding brings the total capital investment of HEINEKEN Vietnam into the Vung Tau Brewery to over $500 million and will increase its annual capacity to 16 million hectolitres from 11 million hectolitres currently.

“We have had bold plans for the Vung Tau Brewery since day one, and the additional investment and expansion will help us turn these plans into reality – those include running the brewery fully on renewable energy and becoming one of the most water-efficient breweries in the world,” Alexander Koch, HEINEKEN Vietnam Managing Director, said at the conference.

The Vung Tau brewery has automated, to a large extent, all its operations in the beer-making process – from raw material delivery, brewing, and filtration to delivery for packing – making it the most productive HEINEKEN brewery in the world. In the Packaging Hall, every two canning lines – each filling 130,000 cans an hour, are only manned by five technicians. The four high-speed canning lines in Vung Tau brewery, which can altogether fill 12 million cans a day, are among the fastest in all HEINEKEN breweries in the world.

The Vung Tau Brewery is built with a clear green vision, with 27% of the total area planned for gardens and green spaces. Since its acquisition in 2017, the brewery has cut energy consumption by almost half (48%) on a per-hectolitre basis. Currently, 97% of the demand for thermal energy comes from a renewable biomass plant just across the street in the same Industrial Zone. Towards the future, the brewery has in place an aspiring plan for renewable electricity.

Over the last five years, HEINEKEN Vietnam Vung Tau Brewery has formed a business ecosystem with more than 46 companies in and around My Xuan and indirectly supports more than 200 jobs locally outside the brewery walls. During the peak of its expansion, the brewery created approximately 1,000 jobs ranging from design and construction to engineering and gardening.

The brewery is also considered the innovation hub for HEINEKEN Vietnam. Since its acquisition, it has produced 7 new products in Vietnam. Vung Tau brewery is home to some of our latest innovations, including Strongbow cider, Tiger Platinum, and Edelweiss.

This additional investment not only confirms HEINEKEN’s commitment to growing with Vietnam but is also a testament to the effort of the local authorities to enhance the province’s attractiveness to FDI investors.

Ba Ria-Vung Tau province, which is part of the Southern Key Economic Region, received the fifth largest foreign direct investment in the first half of 2022, according to data from the Vietnam Government Portal.

Improving systems of deep-water ports, technical infrastructure, and transport structures helped the coastal province’s economic growth, attracting rising revenues over the years.