What we did and what we delivered

Healthcare

Although the rise in the number of new HIV cases is slowing, prevention and treatment remains a priority. The prevention of transmission of HIV from mother to child has been a focus for us in the past year.

In Nigeria, three supply chain companies are working together with Nigerian Breweries Plc. to implement their own HIV prevention programmes. These programmes include non-discrimination, peer education and access to condoms and HIV treatment. The programme is conducted together with two other international private sector companies, the Nigerian Business Coalition and the Private Investors for Africa.

Malaria is still a major cause of sickness and absenteeism in the Sub-Saharan African operating companies and the continued distribution of impregnated bednets, as well as more precise diagnosis by using rapid tests and improved treatment has contributed to the gradual decline in the number of employee-related cases. Malaria mortality has all but disappeared in our workforce.

Chronic diseases though are becoming more prevalent, driven by similar risk factors that exist in more developed markets. We used this information to design a module that outlines concrete interventions that will enhance the health and well-being of our employees.

In October 2008, Heineken Health Affairs organised a global health conference in the Netherlands. Company doctors from around the globe were able to exchange best practices and receive training in new ways of treatment.

Beer promoters

The Beer Selling Industry Cambodia (BSIC) has defined clear standards for the safety of women beer promoters in Cambodia. It was established two years ago to confirm and codify the significant improvements in working terms and conditions that signatories to the agreement had made since 2002. It is also a platform on which further improvements continue to be made. However, the BSIC Code is not mandatory for all companies that sell beer in Cambodia. As a result, only six of the more than 20 companies that use beer promoters in Cambodia have signed the agreement: Heineken, Asia Pacific Breweries, Carlsberg, Guinness, CBL and Cambrew.

In real terms, this means that only one quarter of all beer promoters employed in Cambodia are covered by the programme. In order to achieve a significant step in changing the conditions for the 75 per cent of promoters who are currently not covered by the Code, it is essential that those beer businesses who have not signed the Code yet, do so. In discussions with industry players, and stakeholders on the issue, this is high on our agenda.

In the interests of balanced reporting, an independent audit into the BSIC Code was conducted in 2008. It highlighted the fact that in some areas we have still not fully delivered on the policy that is in place. We will therefore take these as the areas in which we have to improve in 2009. As a sign of our commitment, in some more remote locations where we are not able to guarantee delivery of the Code to a satisfactory level, we have stopped using beer promoters and lost sales. The audit also found that more than 90 per cent of the respondents who had previously worked for non-BSIC members, felt better off under their current BSIC member employment.

Corporate citizenship

In 2008, we spent €5.3 million on non-commercial sponsorship that supports the communities in which we operate. These activities range from sponsorship of local cultural events to financial assistance of training in the communities in which we operate and excludes employee time and employee giving. This amount was 7 per cent lower than the amount spent in 2007.

To facilitate mutual learning between operating companies in the area of corporate citizenship, we have developed and distributed an electronic workbench that allows operating companies to share their activities within the Heineken community.

Employee rights

Throughout 2008, we worked hard on the development of our Employee Rights policy. Roll-out for this policy is planned for 2009. Our operations will make use of the Quick Scan of the Human Rights Compliance Assessment Tool in order to make improvements in this area when needed. No human rights-related incidents were reported to the Group in 2008.

Business ethics

Our Code of Business Conduct is implemented in all but one of the operating companies included in the scope in 2005. Operating companies acquired in 2007 and 2008 will implement the Code in 2009.

We redrafted our Whistleblowing Procedure, taking into account the European privacy regulations and will start the roll-out of this revised policy early in 2009.

We included a number of integrity-related questions in our climate survey and tested this approach in Multi Bintang Indonesia and Heineken Taiwan. Based on the results, we will continue to use the climate survey to measure integrity in our operations every two years.

Local economic impact

The studies for Greece and Burundi were finalised and we published the results on our Company website. For reasons of budget and local priority setting, we have not conducted the two additional Economic Impact Assessments targeted for 2008.