In welcoming the Government’s decision to reopen pubs serving food, restaurants and hotels on June 29, Heineken Ireland is rolling out a quality and cleaning operation to ensure outlets are prepared. As a result of the swift lockdown in mid-March, there are over 100,000 kegs of Heineken beer and cider in the cellars and dispensing taps of shuttered bars.
The Dutch brewer is now collecting this beer and will shoulder the cost of the unused stock. It is equivalent to a contribution of over 10 million pints to pubs across Ireland. The move will ensure that all Heineken beer in outlets around the country is at peak freshness and of the highest quality when pubs, restaurants and hotels re-open later this month.
The company’s 90-strong technical, dispensing and quality team are now visiting all 7,000 customers – at a rate of over 1,000 on-trade outlets per week – to clean every beer and cider dispensing line across the country. Sharon Walsh (above), commercial director, Heineken Ireland, said a cleaning operation of this scale and speed has never been undertaken before.
SUSTAINABLE
Heineken has committed to funding the sustainable repurposing of the expired draught beer and cider in opened kegs. Under its ‘Brewing a Better World’ sustainability programme, the company will ensure that the draught product is used to produce green electricity through anaerobic digestion or, where possible, is given over to farmers for use as fertiliser.
Walsh said that since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic and the closure of pubs, hotels and restaurants, Heineken has supported closed on-trade outlets with measures like credit freezing to training and advice on staff and customer engagement. Aside from Heineken, the company’s portfolio includes Orchard Thieves Cider, Birra Moretti, Desperados, Tiger, Coors Light, Fosters, Sol, Beamish Stout, Murphy’s Stout, Paulaner, Zywiec and Cute Hoor.
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