The Star Online: Business
The Star Online: Business |
- Ireland spearheaded growth in the six years in charge
- Keeping the fine performance going for Guniness Anchor
- Nielsen Malaysia is changing the way it does business
| Ireland spearheaded growth in the six years in charge Posted: 08 Mar 2013 04:02 PM PST CHARLES Ireland, former managing director of Guinness Anchor Bhd (GAB), will forever be etched in the company's history as the man that helped spearhead its growth trajectory during the time he was with the brewery. Ireland, who has been in charged of GAB for nearly six years, led the company to its 11th consecutive year of revenue, volume and profit growth for the financial year ended June 30, 2012. When asked how he feels about leaving a company he helped become the leading player in Malaysia's beer industry, Ireland says: "I'll miss working for GAB and I'll definitely miss working in Malaysia. "It's pride tinged with sadness," says Ireland. "But I'm ready to do something else," he adds. Ireland is succeeded by Hans Essaadi, who has been with the Heineken group for over 20 years. "My leaving is also a good thing for GAB. I do believe a fresh pair of eyes is a good thing for the business," says Ireland. "Change will be good for our business," he says. Ireland has been appointed as group managing director of East African Breweries Ltd (EABL), effective April 1. EABL is East Africa's largest alcohol beverage company and the number one on the Nairobi Stock Exchange with a market capitalisation of about US$3bil. The business consists of five breweries and two spirits plants across seven countries in East Africa including Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. EABL's total volume is 12 million hectolitres, which is 10 times the volume of GAB. EABL has a total of 1,800 employees. Ireland joined GAB in May 2006 as the general manager of marketing and was appointed to the board later that month. He started his career in 1985 as a Ďnancial consultant at Young, Claridge and Richmond Ltd, United Kingdom. In 1987, he joined Nestl UK in the Nestl Rowntree Grocery Division. He was promoted to national accounts manager, Nestl Petfood Division in 1990 and later to sales manager national accounts, Nestl Confectionery Division. He served in various capacities within the Nestl Group until October 1997. In November 1997, Ireland started his career with Diageo Plc as account director on trade, Guinness GB. He became customer marketing director, Guinness GB in 1999 before his promotion to Global Route to consumer director for Diageo Ready to Drink Brands in 2001. Before joining GAB, from 2003 to 2006, Ireland was the managing director of Diageo Philippines and was given the additional responsibility of commercial director, Diageo Asia, in 2005. While in Malaysia, Ireland also served as the president of the Malaysian International Chamber of Commerce and Industry and vice-president of the National Chamber of Commerce and Industry Malaysia. He was a governing council member of the Confederation of Malaysian Brewers Bhd and a trustee of the GAB Foundation. Looking back, Ireland says his time with GAB was a "positive one." "I had a lot of fun with GAB, working with the people. When everyone is happy, it's a great environment. Our track record is also very rare. It's unlike any business for Diageo anywhere around the world. "All the successes in the past six years was a great experience for me. I took over a business that was in great shape and it had great fundamentals." Ireland says he placed a lot of emphasis on developing and improving the talent relationship within GAB. "In the past, the business was a little bit diluted in its focus for many reasons. I looked at prioritising things that were most important. We didn't have great teamwork in certain departments. "Some departments were isolated and there were even rivalries. So I tried to help create a healthy teamwork environment." Ireland says GAB hired "great talents" during his tenure with the company. "But more could have been done, like better succession planning. We also lost people we would've loved to retain and also failed to recruit those that we really wanted on board GAB." On his appointment to spearhead the business in East Africa, Ireland openly admits that it will be challenging but one that he is definitely eager to take on. "When I joined GAB as marketing director, I had some time to learn the business before taking over as managing director. With my next position (Africa), I won't have as much time. Africa is a fantastic business with great heritage. So it's going to be big and complicated. But I believe it's going to be a dynamic growth area and has a fantastic future. "There will be short-term challenges, but the medium to long-term outlook seems good." Related Story: |
| Keeping the fine performance going for Guniness Anchor Posted: 08 Mar 2013 04:01 PM PST HANS Essaadi, who was recently appointed Guinness Anchor Bhd (GAB) new managing director, knows he has a huge task ahead of him. Not only does he need to ensure that the company maintains its position as the country's leading brewery by market share, Essaadi knows he has to ensure GAB's decade-long-plus earnings continue on its upward trajectory. For the past 11 years, GAB has been recording consecutive revenue, volume and profit growth over half of which was spearheaded by former managing director, Charles Ireland. Essaadi, who has been in the country for about two months already, looks calm as he gears up to take over the reigns from Ireland. "I admit I've taken over a unique business and I know I do have huge shoes to fill," he tells StarBizWeek. Essaadi took over as GAB managing director on March 1. Essaadi attributes GAB's 11 years of growth to the company having a "winning mentality." "It's a legacy that I'm taking over!" Essaadi has been with the Heineken Group for over 20 years and has served in various capacities across several different business units and regions around the world. He was most recently the general manager of Sirocco, Heineken Region Africa & Middle East a joint venture between Heineken and Emirates in the Gulf region. On his taking over operations in Malaysia, he is quick to admit that the business will not be without its challenges. "There will always be challenges, but then that's what makes for a fun working environment. Otherwise it will be a boring marketplace," Essaadi says. Financial momentum GAB recorded a 1.6% net profit growth to RM122.99mil for the first six-month period ended Dec 31, 2012. In the corresponding period last year, it recorded RM121.03mil in net profit. Revenue in the first half of the year slipped to RM821.73mil from RM912.95mil in the previous corresponding period. For its second quarter, the company recorded a net profit of RM66.16mil compared with RM65.82mil a year earlier. GAB registered 8.3% lower revenue of RM429.4mil from RM468.3mil a year ago in its second quarter. In its notes accompanying its financial results to Bursa Malaysia last month, the company said it expected the Malaysian economy to remain stable and domestic demand to remain robust. "Despite increasingly competitive market environment, the group believes it has the right strategies, network and resources to achieve sustainable growth in the current financial year." It added that the investment in information technology systems, once embedded, would give GAB a strategic competitive advantage. Analysts covering the stock say the brewery's earnings were within expectations. Maybank Investment Bank Research in its report following the company's results said GAB's first half 2013 net profit was in line with its earnings forecast. "Net profit was sustained by better product and channel mix along with improved cost controls, compensating for a 10% year-on-year drop in sales. "We understand the weaker sales were due to sales only captured in January (GAB's third quarter) due to the later Chinese New Year (February 2013 vs January 2012); as well as a further decline in duty-free volume (10% of volume vs 20% in 2012)." The research house also said earnings were lower due to overall product sales softness. CIMB Research, in its report, said it was "scaling back" its sales forecasts but was raising margins for a better product and channel mix. "We are not perturbed by the 10% year-on-year decline in its first half revenue as it resulted from the timing of CNY, which was three weeks later this year compared with last year. "GAB indicated that January 2013 sales were 80% higher year-on-year. However, since revenue for the seven months to January 2013 were only up slightly, we have cut our financial year 2013 sales growth forecast from 5% to 4%." The research house notes that earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation margins jumped from 19.2% in the first half of 2012 to 22.6% in the first half of 2013, reflecting a better product mix due to increased sales of premium beer like Heineken compared with mainstream beer such as Tiger. "A better channel mix also contributed to higher margins as beer sold in bottles costs less than canned beer," said CIMB. It adds that it expects the company's premier beer brand, Heineken, to lead GAB's near-term sales growth, especially after changes to its bottle in July 2012. "This will benefit margins as selling prices for premium beer like Heineken are 15% higher than for mainstream beer like Tiger. Currently, Heineken makes up 10% of sales. Following a briefing session with GAB recently, CIMB says the beer company still expects to outperform the malt liquor market in its current financial year, even though it is already the market leader with some 60% market share. "GAB believes any excise tax increase would be moderate. There is not much scope for a big increase since Malaysians already pay the second highest excise duty in the world after Norway. There is no certainty that GAB will raise its selling prices this year as management is taking a wait-and-see approach." In sync with the economy Essaadi says he is optimistic about the company's prospects for the remainder of its financial year. For a start, he is thankful the Government has not raised excise duties for the past seven years. "Our excise duties are quite high and I'm glad there has been no increase in the past seven years. But there are other challenges, like competition we get from grey importers and traders who are giving us unfair competition. "We're not crying about it but it's a challenge and we need to find ways to remain competitive," he says. Still, the biggest challenge, says Essaadi, is to continue to grow the business. "What we need to do is to keep growing. We've already achieved 11 consecutive years of growth. Now the challenge will be to go into a 12th, 13th and more years of growth," he says. Ireland seems cautiously optimistic about the prospects for GAB for the remainder of its current financial year. In the near term, he believes that the impending general election has softened the beer market a little. "The impending general election is making people a little bit more careful with their spending," Ireland says, adding that anticipation of the general election was creating ambiguity in the marketplace. "The stock market doesn't like ambiguity and people don't like ambiguity," he says. Ireland believes that consumers are holding back their spending a little bit as they await the outcome of the general election. "People are keeping their hands in their pockets a little bit," he says. Ireland feels that the recent bad Malaysian weather has also not helped. "Other factors that may have contributed to softer sales include the dreadful weather. It has been pouring and there has been flash floods everywhere. Because of this, people are not in pubs drinking when they are stuck in traffic jams. So that has affected the business as well." On the outlook of the local malt liquor market, Ireland says this segment correlates closely with the performance of the country's gross domestic product (GDP). "It's true that the malt liquor market shadows GDP quite closely and the latest figures have been quite solid." According to reports, Malaysia's economy recorded a spectacular performance in the last quarter of 2012, growing 6.4%. This is the highest quarterly growth in 2 years and was boosted by the manufacturing and construction sectors. This supported the overall economic growth for 2012 that expanded to 5.6% compared to 5.1% in 2011. Based on reports, all sectors registered positive growth with the services, manufacturing and construction sectors continuing to be the key drivers in the supply side. According to Bank Negara, there are emerging signs of improvements in the global economy where the latest economic indicators also suggest further stabilisation in growth performance in Asia. "GDP growth in the region is also quite solid," says Ireland, who is optimistic about the local beer market for the rest of this year. He says the various ongoing Economic Transformation Programme projects currently are goods signs that the Malaysian economy is in good shape. "All (the projects) that's going on is great and the Malaysian economy is solid. But we do believe things will pick up further after the elections and people will start spending a bit more." Essaadi is also optimistic, saying that GAB will drive growth and boost earnings through various promotional campaigns. "Looking at our full promotional calendar, we will be leveraging our brand through various platforms, such as sports and music," he says, without disclosing what the company's various campaigns will comprise. "There's a lot of anticipation. We're ramping up our activities to make sure we come out of the year in a sustainable and positive way." Banking on corporate responsibility (CR) It is no surprise that GAB invests substantially in CR-related activities. The brewery has won multiple accolades for its push for social responsibility. Ireland says investing in CR has various benefits. "A few years ago, we looked at how we wanted to move the company forward and looked at CR as one way of doing that. We felt there was both a business and responsibility benefit. Part of the reason our brands are popular with people is because we strive to do the right thing with our brands, to be socially responsible. "Furthermore, it's also important to be viewed as a socially responsible company. When we interview prospective employees, being socially responsible is on the list of why people want to join organisations these days." Related Story: |
| Nielsen Malaysia is changing the way it does business Posted: 08 Mar 2013 03:47 PM PST NIELSEN Malaysia is changing. The country's leading market research company is becoming more proactive and plans to offer more globally-proven products. This may well be something that the advertising industry has been longing to hear, for the industry relies heavily on Nielsen for media-related data − from newspaper readership figures to TV programme ratings. Richard Hall, who was appointed Nielsen Malaysia managing director in May last year, says the company needs to be more of a catalyst in some of the new technology/product discussions with industry players. "In the past, I think we had been more reactive, and that's fine. I see now that we probably have a role to play in terms of being more proactive and getting more feedback from clients," he says in his first interview with StarBizWeek since his current appointment. Hall took over the helm from Kow Kuan Hua, who has been promoted to marketing effectiveness leader for South-East Asia. Except for a year in Shanghai, the Englishman has been based in Malaysia since 2003, mainly in regional Nielsen roles. Today he oversees both the "Buy" (customised and retail measurement research) and "Watch" (media measurement research) businesses of Nielsen Malaysia. The Buy business is larger than the Watch business, but it is the Watch business that seems to attract close scrutiny. Among others, there has been a continuing call to have more accurate data on advertising expenditure (adex). Nielsen Malaysia currently measures the country's adex mainly using official rate cards of media owners, which do not show discounts. Hall says that in a few markets, Nielsen does cover net ad spending but this requires collaboration across the industry. "The industry has to be ready to be able to share the different discounts for us to go and track that. The other way of doing this is to agree on, say, the standard discounts for a big client for TV and we can apply that to the rate cards that we have," he says. It has been "some time" since Nielsen talked to the industry about it, and Hall feels it is time to reopen the discussion. "Are we now at a stage where the industry is more comfortable sharing that information? Obviously we'll make sure there's a level of confidentiality there so we don't reveal specific companies' discounts. "I think there's an interest for clients to get a better read. As long as they see the benefits are greater than the risks, they'll be interested. And it's up to us to go to them and say we can actually do this; we can potentially convince them. We need to showcase what we're doing in other markets." Going McDonald's way Nielsen Malaysia, which has appointed Ben Ting as the new leader for Watch, will reassess what clients want. What consumers are doing in terms of media are changing rapidly and Nielsen needs to change with it, says Hall. Fortunately, it has various products that it can lift from the Nielsen global network (Nielsen has presence in some 100 countries) to address the changes. Over the next few months, he says, the company will build a plan for the next two to five years in terms of what it can do to meet the changing nature of its business. An example of the changes is the viewership of TV content across different screens. Nielsen Malaysia can, if the clients want, bring here the cross-screen viewership developments that Nielsen is doing in the United States. Hall says in the last two years, Nielsen has seen a "big change" in how it operates. "In the past we would have local solutions so each market will have a slightly different solution to the same problem. We now have globally proven products which we can lift and place into different countries, We know exactly how the products work and global clients know what they buy in Country X is the same as what they buy in Country Y." Doesn't that sound a bit like McDonald's? "It is, to a certain extent," he replies. "What clients want is consistency in terms of standard, accuracy and what we do as a business, so we're more and more taking on that approach." However, Hall says it will have to adapt the product to meet the local market, and may never launch some products in the market because they're not suitable or clients are not interested in buying. "But we will try to get the best products out there in terms of quality, speed, consistency and accuracy by adopting a standard product across markets. And that's across the whole of our business." Nielsen, which is headquartered in both the United States and the Netherlands, is in the midst of buying radio ratings firm Arbitron for US$1.3bil. Hall says this is a really positive move, as Arbitron has the technology to track more accurately what people listen to and what screens people watch by. "Malaysia is a big radio market. We need to consult the clients to say this is what we can do, and go back (to headquarters) to justify the case based on what revenue we can generate, and then we're good to go. It shows quite a different view of what Nielsen is. We are becoming far more innovative in the way we go forward and tackle the changing nature of consumers and use technology to do that." On the calls to improve its measurement of Internet adex, he says Nielsen does have an Internet product globally but is prioritising markets where it will introduce it in. "At the moment, Malaysia is not one. But it's up to us and our clients to make that case back to the global team," Hall says. Will it add more websites to represent Internet adex? Hall says he does not think it is feasible to do that at present. Asked whether it is developing a mobile product, he says it is launching an app that sits in the phone that monitors which applications the owner uses in the phone and the amount of time spent on talking, texting and playing games. The company is recruiting for the panel of respondents now and the first set of results will be out later this year. Neuroscience in marketing On the Buy business, Hall says two new products will contribute much to Nielsen Malaysia's revenue growth this year: Trade Dimensions and NeuroFocus. Trade Dimensions, which is a revamped product available since last December, allows manufacturers and retailers to look at a digital map of all urban-area retail stores within a certain radius. Nielsen Malaysia geo-coded a map of every retail store in urban Malaysia (100,000 plus stores). "Manufacturers will know where they should be stocking their products and increase distribution, while retailers can find out where their competition is and where is the best spot to open their future stores," Hall says. In 2011 Nielsen acquired 100% of California-headquartered neuromarketing firm NeuroFocus Inc, which does neurological testing for consumer research. In November last year Nielsen's Malaysian office launched the neurological research product, which measures consumers' reactions to different types of input through their self-conscious. "This is where we put a cap on their head and read their brainwaves. Then, for example, you can flash specific words such as exciting or tradition in front of them words linked to different brand attributes and afterwards play an advert or show a logo. You would then repeat the same words, and see how different the subconscious brain waves have actually reacted to that messaging that has come through," he says. This allows the agency and marketer to know whether the ad makes people see the brand as more trusted. Besides TV ads, one can also use it for print ads and new packaging. "For TV ads, we can reduce the duration of a TV ad from 30 seconds to 15 or 20 seconds, and probably it would have more impact. You can cut out the non-impactful parts. This applies to content of TV shows as well. Are viewers identifying with that particular character, or do they like the new news reader? A news reader can be very engaging from a financial reporting point of view, but if the person does sport, she may not engage at all. So it's very smart and very interesting." According to Hall, there is a huge amount of client interest in this product. He cannot comment on financial numbers or projections without the headquarters' approval, but says that last year was a mixed year for the market research industry. "If you look at the more international clients that we have, especially in the FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) and CPG (consumer packaged goods) area, they were having a tough year in Europe and the US, and a lot of them were contracting budgets. We tend to reflect how our clients are doing. "We stayed level (in FMCG/CPG); we were pretty good. But I'd say the other three big areas we work in − finance, telecom, and technology − we saw pretty strong growth." Last year Nielsen Malaysia was involved in consolidation and internal reorganisation. "We're now seeing the benefits of that coming through," Hall says. Hall may not be able to give revenue projections, but it all seems to point to a good year for Nielsen Malaysia. |
| You are subscribed to email updates from The Star Online: Business To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
0 ulasan:
Catat Ulasan