Edwin Botterman leaves Heineken Romania

Ziarul Financiar 19.02.2009

Edwin Botterman's term as chairman and CEO of Heineken Romania will end in late March this year, and he will take over the CEO position at Heineken's Italian subsidiary starting April. Botterman will be replaced by Jan Derck van Karnebeek of the Netherlands, who has been CEO of Heineken Zagorka Bulgaria for the past three years. Karnebeek, with a master's degree in law from Utrecht University of the Netherlands, and with an MBA at INSEAD, has been working for the Heineken group since 1992, filling various positions in the Netherlands, China and Slovakia. Edwin Botterman has been working with Heineken for 22 years, being appointed as chairman of Heineken Romania in March 2005. Under his management, the company has almost doubled its revenues, has multiplied its income nine times and has signed a deal of above 150m euros by taking over Bere Mures, which has added 6% to the company's market share. Thus, whereas in late 2004 Heineken Romania had turnover worth 131.4m euros and 400,000-euro income, in late 2007 the domestic subsidiary of the Dutch group reached 207.7m euros in turnover and 47.3m-euro income. Heineken Romania has not disclosed 2008 financial results, but according to the information included in the company's annual report Bucegi, Golden Brau and Ciuc brands last year registered sales growth of below 10%, with Heineken as the only brand posting a two-digit increase, of 26%, in 2008 year-on-year.