Heineken teams up with Grab to grow its business in South-east Asia

BEER lovers (of legal drinking age) will soon be able to have cold beer delivered to their doorsteps, thanks to a partnership between ride-hailing unicorn Grab, and international brewer Heineken.

The collaboration, announced on Tuesday, will enable Heineken to tap Grab's platform of services to grow its digital business, and extend its reach to consumers in the region, both companies said in a joint statement.

Among other things, the partnership will help to broaden the distribution of Heineken beers and ciders through GrabFood, allow customers to sample new Heineken beers and ciders through promotional campaigns, and enable GrabPay as a preferred mobile payment method for Heineken events.

The Heineken online speciality store will also be launched on the Grab app.

In addition, Grab will become the preferred transport provider for Heineken employees across South-east Asia, and Heineken will be able to use anonymised data to identify popular locations from which most orders come from, and ascertain the best sellers, the companies said.

The collaboration, which kicks off in Singapore and Vietnam at the end of September, will be followed by additional offerings in the Philippines, Thailand, Myanmar and Cambodia.

Grab's chief executive officer Anthony Tan noted that the partnership is a "differentiator in South-east Asia", as it unites Heineken products with Grab's multiple touchpoints onto a single platform.

Added Heineken's Asia-Pacific president Dolf van den Brink: "We are excited to introduce a new level of customer and consumer convenience by partnering with Grab. This initiative, which is very much aligned with our company's digital transformation, opens a whole world of opportunities for us - from introducing innovative ways of launching new products, to giving consumers new channels to buy our products."