VandeStreek Internationalization Case
- Beer van der Linden
- Jesse Vermeulen
,Index
Executive summary ..............................................................................................................................3
Reasons for expansion ........................................................................................................................4
What would VandeStreek be able to outsource? .............................................................................5
Timeline ..................................................................................................................................................5
PESTLE and country analysis Germany ...........................................................................................5
PESTLE Factors ...............................................................................................................................5
Market Size and trend ......................................................................................................................6
Language/culture barriers: ..............................................................................................................6
Pricing research ................................................................................................................................6
Target customer Profile/consumption ............................................................................................6
Import / tax law ..................................................................................................................................6
The German consumer market overall: .............................................................................................8
The best suitable strategy for VanderStreek ....................................................................................8
Export strategy | International strategy .........................................................................................9
Standardization strategy ..................................................................................................................9
Multidomestic strategy .....................................................................................................................9
Transnational strategy .....................................................................................................................9
Partnerships ...........................................................................................................................................9
Supermarket/kiosks ..........................................................................................................................9
Partnership/Strategic Alliance/Joint Venture with a German brewer .....................................11
Bars and specialty stores ................................................................................................................9
On what scale are we going to enter? .........................................................................................10
How do we enter the foreign market? .........................................................................................10
How are we going to market the product in the foreign market? ............................................10
VandeStreek: Law in Germany .........................................................................................................11
Export Law .......................................................................................................................................11
Corporate Tax Law .........................................................................................................................11
Brand awareness plan........................................................................................................................12
Try-out sales promotions ...............................................................................................................12
Promotion through local influencers ............................................................................................12
Taking part in local festivals and food market events ...............................................................12
Social media marketing .................................................................................................................12
Financial Data ......................................................................................................................................12
Risks of expansion ..............................................................................................................................15
Cash flow crunch ............................................................................................................................14
Operational inefficiency due to rapid expansion ........................................................................14
Customer satisfaction.....................................................................................................................14
Logical overview of the plan ..............................................................................................................14
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, Executive summary
Vandestreek has become a well-established beer brewer in the Netherlands market and has become known
for brewing by sourcing local products and selling mostly in the Utrecht region. Beers brewed by
Vandestreek are full of character and unique in flavor. Currently, all the brewing capacity is being used to
produce various beers, of which the alcohol-free beer is the most sold product. Vandestreek’s non-alcoholic
craft beer and several other craft beers are selling well and the company is ready to scale up. By growing,
exporting and exposing other beers to the bigger market, Vandestreek is aiming to strengthen the product
turnover rate to grow their assets and product strength. With more assets, a higher product turnover rate,
Vandestreek will then be able to add brewing systems and upscale the brand.
To upscale the brand, after comparing different countries it became clear that Germany would offer the
best position to scale up. In the region of Nordrhein-Westfalen the craft beer market is in full bloom.
Vandestreek would be able to enter transactional partnerships with an export/international strategy to
keep focus on what they do best; brewing beer. By engaging in activities with supermarket promotions,
social media marketing, promotional materials and attending food/beer festivals. Vandestreek will be able
to build more brand awareness a steady revenue stream. The cost for engaging all of the optional brand
activities is EUR 62.609 per year including tax and export. Even with a small sales position of 150 beers a
day in Germany, it would be possible to make 3.6% profit within the first year of entering and the ROI
would be 11.4 months. The branding strategy would get more cost-effective YoY, allowing Vandestreek to
possibly grow their market share exponentially in Germany every year compared to the expenses made.
Goals & Metrics Years
Brand plan total yearly
cost: 62.609 1 3 5
Employees: 18 employees: 23 employees: 29 employees: 36
Starting position in Germany
Growing product recognition
- Daily active users (150) DAU: 168 (+12%) DAU: 203.3 (+21% DAU: 276,488(+36%
Y1) Y3)
- Recommendations (15) REC: 26.9 (+16% REC: 42,7 (21% of REC: 69.1 (25% of DAU)
DAU) DAU)
- Buyer loyalty (43%) LOY: (+48%) LOY: 51% LOY:54%
Increased sales figures Sales Sales Sales
- Company revenue 134.550 REV: 148.680 REV: 179.920,5 REV: 244.692,6
- Total company profit (65.925) PROF: 73.080 PROF: 88.435,5 PROF: 120.272,55
- inventory turnover (43 days) INV TURN: 44 days INV TURN: 40 days INV TURN: 34 days (-
(-4.3%) (- 13%) 26%)
Greater product diversification
- Amount of different beers made (29) Beers: 32 Beers: 36 Beers: 40
Increased amounts of brewed beers
- Capacity increase (10.000) Prod. Cap.: None Prod. Cap.: 15:000 Prod. Cap.: 17.500
Increased international brand awareness
- People reached with marketing efforts People: 246 (+17% People: 298 (+21% People: 366 (+23%
(210) to last year) to last year) compared3to last year
, 2 Reasons for expansion
Currently, VandeStreek is battling with its competitors in the Netherlands. Competitors like
Oproer Brewery who is focused on sustainability in the brewing process and Maximus Brewery
who owns 10 different craft beers and owns a tasting restaurant. Even though the craft beer
market is booming, VandeStreek needs to make use of its opportunities in order to tackle
competition. In example, VandeStreek can sell more beers internationally. This way
VandeStreek will also be able to escape the local craft beer competition (Gelissen, Weißer,
Bashkeeva, & De Lind van Wijngaarden, 2019). The most important thing to focus on
VandeStreek is to keep focusing on what they do best, brewing high quality beers. To keep
on doing this, the company needs to attract and engage new customers to scale up the brand.
In 2015, the craft beer market size was valued at USD 85.02 (Research, 2017). The craft beer
market was expected to witness significant growth. This growth is expected because of the
growing awareness among international consumers of the wide range of flavors and styles of
craft beers. This creates opportunities for VandeStreek. VandeStreek has a broad basic
product portfolio which consists of 6 core beers, Blonde, IPA, Triple, Saison, Stout and the
Nonalcoholic IPA. Besides that, VandeStreek brews 4 seasonal beers and 19 special beers.
Since Vandestreek passed the OBM sustainability assessment, the brand might have a
competitive advantage in foreign markets due to being environmentally conscious.
There are multiple reasons why VandeStreek should consider doing business internationally.
The company could build connections internationally which can lead to interesting
opportunities and partnerships with other companies. The company will be able to create a
global image of VandeStreek and promote their business internationally. The Netherlands is
comparatively small but is very prominent in technological and structured fields. Many
universities in the Netherlands focus on technical education and technology. The Netherlands
has a booming IT sector and is often described as the new Silicon Valley of Europe. Besides,
the Netherlands enjoys an open corporate business culture and has a highly skilled workforce
due to the technical focus countrywide. The use of skilled workforce and specialism of
technology also make it interesting for VandeStreek to go international.
3 What can VandeStreek outsource?
VandeStreek can outsource processes such as bottling, logistics and transportations to other
companies when expanding abroad, since the creation of beer itself is the competitive
advantage it may not be advantageous to move the core operations abroad. Depending on
the country which we are looking into internationalize, there are various avenues we could
take, for example if an expansion occurred in Germany, a problem listed by VandeStreek was
the pfandsystem implemented in Germany, this could be resolved by exporting into Germany
instead of setting up operations in the country, there are many ways to get through this. For
example, in cities like Cologne, Germany there are various craft beer stores and bars
throughout the city which would take kegs, or an in-bar partnership might be good with these
bars. There are also online options in which companies such as Fat Franck which operates
usa-drinks.de exports drinks from the United States into Germany, a similar partnership could
be implemented in order to export VandeStreek’s drinks into Germany.
There are advantages to setting up export in the US or Czech Republic due to possible US
cost reductions, easier hops import in and from the US, cheap bottling or branding in the Czech
Republic. However, Germany offers the most advantages due to Vandestreek being able to
increase/diversify their export to different retailers with great ease. This means that there is
lower risk to exporting and the entry strategy can be easily pivoted. By using export measures,
the market can be tested effectively before scaling up the export. Germany has a If success
is not met in the first year, Vandestreek can easily diversify their export beers, to increase their
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