Do we like them?

Do we like Heineken?

Dutch brewer of Heineken, Amstel and many local beers, sold worldwide; based in Amsterdam.

Our score: 5 out of 10. Mixed. Real climate progress and a clean Russia exit, but repeated competition-law losses and a brand-new CEO. We'd hold it, not rave about it.

Heineken is the world's second-biggest brewer, based in Amsterdam and founded in 1864. The family still holds control through a holding company, and Charlene de Carvalho-Heineken sits on the board for them. It has a new boss: Rafael Oliveira, who came from coffee group JDE Peet's and started on 1 October 2026.

Oliveira is the first outsider ever to run the company. He replaces Dolf van den Brink, who resigned unexpectedly in January after six years. The company then had no CEO for a few weeks at the start of June.

The biggest drama is competition law. In October 2026 an Amsterdam court ordered Heineken to pay €111.2m to Greek rival MTB over abuse by its Greek arm, Athenian Brewery. Greece's regulator had fined that arm €31.5m in 2015 over exclusive retailer deals. Heineken says it will appeal.

There were smaller slips too. The Dutch prosecutor fined Heineken Netherlands €1.5m after it filled over 7.2 million cans without the deposit label in April 2023. Heineken said it had misread the tolerance policy. Earlier, a Kenyan court found it had unlawfully ended a distributor's contract.

On the plus side, Heineken says it cut its own brewery emissions (scope 1 and 2) by 34% from 2018 to 2024, with 84% renewable electricity. It also left Russia in 2023, selling for €1 and taking a loss of about €300m. A mixed record, hence the middling score.