Every two weeks, Mr Karel Vuursteen makes a pilgrimage from Heineken's headquarters in Amsterdam to the home of Freddie Heineken. Now retired, Mr Heineken was the third member of the founding family to run the Dutch group, which became the world's second-largest brewer under his stewardship.
Mr Vuursteen, by contrast, is a novice in the brewing business. He joined Heineken in 1991 after 23 years with Philips, the electronics group. Two years later he was appointed chairman of the executive board.
Mr Vuursteen was not the first chairman to come from outside the founding family, but he was the first with such a short career at Heineken. He has perhaps found it easier to see the potential clash between the Heineken family interests and those of the rest of the shareholders.
"When I joined the company, I was stunned by two things: how careful they were with the brand; and the long-term perspective involved in building brand positions," Mr Vuursteen says. "Those are aspects which are very strong in a family company, which is always interested in the longterm because it thinks in generations."
Mr Heineken, who is 75, still owns 50 per cent of the shares in the holding company which owns 50 per cent of the brewing group.
"Whenever I pay him a visit," Mr Vuursteen says, "I learn something or get a good idea. He has an enormous interest in the company apart from his financial stake. He knows the business."
On the other hand, 75 per cent of Heineken's shares are held outside the family, by shareholders who are primarily interested in the share price. "It is my task to combine those two," Mr Vuursteen says.
So far, he has found the two sets of interests compatible. But he concedes there may be strains, as when acquisitions in France and Italy led to a pause in profit growth in 1996.
Heineken was criticised at the time for investing in mature markets. But the chairman says the investments have paid off. They gave Heineken a lead position in Italy, with 37 per cent of the market, and the number two position in France with 35 per cent.
"Perhaps what I did wrong was not to tell the markets earlier that it would have an influence on short-term profit," he says ruefully. "In the long-term, it was exactly the right thing to do and I would do it again."
He has done it again, in Poland, where Heineken last year took majority control of Zywiec, the country's premium beer brand, and merged it with Brewpole which produces the popular EB. The merged company will have 38 per cent of the Polish market, complementing its leading positions in Slovakia and Bulgaria. Mr Vuursteen wants to do something similar in Spain, where the group's El Aguila subsidiary is number two with 17 per cent of the market.
He says: "We need to be a different size of company with a different position." Of the five international brewing groups in Spain, Diageo is seen as most likely to make a move by selling its troubled Cruzcampo unit.
The importance Mr Vuursteen attributes to size in particular markets reflects Heineken's strategy for international growth. While some brewers expand by exporting their domestic brands - such as Anheuser-Busch with Budweiser - and others acquire foreign brewers, Heineken, Mr Vuursteen says, has "a philosophy of doing both".
In some markets, including much of Europe - and Ireland where the company owns Murphy Brewery - Heineken buys brewers and consolidates them on a national basis. That gives scale and distribution for local beers, while allowing Heineken to sell its international brands at the top of the range.
In countries where it cannot acquire broad leadership positions with local beers, it imports the Heineken brands as premium products. That has been the approach in the US, where Heineken was until recently the number one imported beer. Last year, Mexico's Modelo knocked Heineken off its pedestal with its lower-priced Corona brand.
"Corona's growth is fabulous - though in a different segment of the market to ours, competing with standard brands in most of the US," Mr Vuursteen admits. "Its pricing and positioning vary in different parts of the country, while we have a consistent positioning policy across the US. It may limit our opportunities for growth, but I am much more interested in the long-term positioning of the brand."
The long-term perspective has also kept Heineken in Asia, which accounts for onetenth of the group's sales, and in Africa, despite economic and political upheaval in both regions.
"We have been in Indonesia since 1928, including through the Japanese occupation," says Mr Vuursteen. "We are convinced the region will come back, even if nobody knows when."
In Africa, Heineken is the second-largest brewer, with a strong presence in countries such as Angola, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, formerly Zaire.
Taking a stake in South African Breweries would seem a natural decision. But although Mr Vuursteen acknowledges the two groups have a good geographical fit in Africa and compatible corporate cultures, he is uncomfortable with the investment risks. "More than two-thirds of SAB's profits and assets are in South Africa, with all its political and economic uncertainties," he says. "I have to ask myself whether I would as an individual invest 20-30 per cent of my savings in that company. I can imagine safer investments in safer areas."
What, then, of a merger with another large brewing group - Anheuser-Busch, say or Philip Morris which owns Miller, the third-largest brewer globally?
"I don't see any need to line up with a major competitor," he replies. Heineken has more than 5 per cent of world production, which leaves ample room to grow and add shareholder value. The industry as a whole remains refreshingly unconsolidated, with the top 10 beer companies dividing 40 per cent of world production between them.
"We are proud of our Heineken culture. We think there is no need to give it up so long as we are still performing in the interests of shareholders," Mr Vuursteen says.
