We produce over 200 brands of beers and soft drinks across six continents. These range from internationally recognised beers such as Peroni, Pilsner Urquell, Miller Genuine Draft and the recently acquired Grolsch to brands with a strong regional connection such as Leinenkugel’s in the United States and Castle Lager in South Africa. We take pride in each and every one, using only the best quality raw materials and refuse to compromise with inferior materials.
This demand for a consistent supply of good quality raw materials underpins our work with smallholders such as barley farmers in India and sorghum growers in Uganda. These projects are both examples of how we combine business benefit with adding value to the economies in which we operate.
Brand-led, customer-focused
The best way for us to add value to our communities is to continue to build a successful business. To do this, we need to keep delivering the products our consumers want and we have consciously shifted our emphasis over the last two years towards a brand-led, consumer-focused approach. Today our marketing and technical teams work closely together, understanding what our customers want and then establishing the processes by which the demand will be met.
We start by building a clear understanding of what a brand means to a consumer – the ‘brand proposition’. We then define the key technical criteria required to support the proposition. From here we put together an in-depth brewing manual – essentially the recipe for the beer – and the technical standards which specify the equipment and processes to be used. These blueprints have helped to instil a real sense of pride in the technical fundamentals of our brands and enable us to ensure that consumers around the world receive a consistent experience from each of our beers, even when personnel change or equipment is upgraded.
Global taste system
As well as setting standards for the raw materials we procure and the manufacturing processes we follow, we have also developed a ‘global taste system’ to ensure consistency in the experience our customers enjoy. Now rolled out across all our regions and operating companies the system has established a consistent training programme and common lexicon for the qualified beer tasters in each of our operations. It guides the monthly taste panels where our beers are evaluated for ‘trueness to type’ and how close they are on a ten point scale to the criteria laid out in the brand technical footprint.
Product testing and recall
It is essential that our products are safe and each of our operations runs product testing programmes to ensure that this is the case. In the last year we established a global product testing programme with the independent laboratory of the Brewing Research Institute in the UK. Every month, samples from each hub are submitted for analysis to ensure they meet the stringent health and safety standards we have set.
We have systems for the recall of product on those rare occasions where our standards are not met. These form part of our global business continuity policy and are subject to review by our internal audit team. An increasing number of our operations now include contact details on the product in case of a complaint or query.
There are stringent quality assurance and control processes in our soft drinks operations. As a licensee of Coca-Cola, we have to follow its rigorous product stewardship standards. This includes meeting product-testing requirements, providing monthly reports and passing an in-depth annual audit of our systems. We have now extended this approach to all our soft drinks operations.
Reflecting cultural diversity and changing tastes
As the business becomes more consumer-focused, we are better able to reflect cultural diversity and the changing tastes of our customers.
Launched in June last year in recognition of the rapid latinisation of US culture, Miller Chill is a modern American take on a long-standing Mexican recipe, the chelada. This light beer is brewed with a hint of lime and a pinch of salt to provide a uniquely refreshing experience.
Miller Chill has proved very successful. The product has received a number of industry awards and US sales in the first six months of national distribution hit six million cases, rivalling other, established brands.