HÀ NỘI — HEINEKEN Việt Nam’s 35-year journey has been one of growing alongside the country, James Crampton, the company’s corporate affairs director, said at the 2026 Việt Nam Corporate Sustainability Forum (VCSF) on October 5.
He highlighted how economic growth can go hand in hand with sustainability and contribute to national development goals in the new era.
Sustainability creates core value
Since opening its first brewery in HCM City in 1991, HEINEKEN Việt Nam has expanded to operate five breweries, employing nearly 3,000 people and supporting 167,000 jobs across its value chain.
The company says that placing sustainability at the heart of its business and production activities has helped improve efficiency, drive innovation, strengthen resilience and lay the foundation for long-term, high-quality growth.
HEINEKEN’s global EverGreen 2030 strategy gives sustainability and responsibility targets the same weight as financial targets. The company says this approach has helped it deliver results across three pillars: responsible consumption, the environment and society, while improving productivity, growth quality and competitiveness.
Ripple effects across the value chain
Over the past 35 years, HEINEKEN Việt Nam has maintained that the company can only succeed when Việt Nam succeeds, Crampton said.
The Vũng Tàu Brewery is a case in point. Beyond expanding production capacity, its local team can independently operate, maintain and upgrade advanced systems. In 2025, the team contributed 28 new best practices in water and energy efficiency to HEINEKEN’s global network.
“Technology can be brought into Việt Nam. But the capability to understand and operate that technology must be built in Việt Nam, for Vietnamese talent,” Crampton said.
The company’s impact also extends to local businesses. Minh Quang, which began as a family-run beverage shop with five employees, received support from HEINEKEN Việt Nam to strengthen its operational capacity and access finance. It now employs around 250 people and operates three distribution warehouses, serving about 700 retail outlets.
Pioneering public-private partnerships for sustainability
A water conservation programme launched in 2022 with the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and local partners is an example of the company’s public-private partnerships.
 |
| By the end of 2025, the company had achieved water balance at three breweries in Hà Nội, HCM City and Tiền Giang. Photo courtesy of HEINEKEN Việt Nam |
By the end of 2025, the company had achieved water balance at three breweries in Hà Nội, HCM City and Tiền Giang, now part of Đồng Tháp Province. The programme is being expanded to the Cu Đê River basin in Đà Nẵng and the Ray–Đá Đen basin in HCM City, with the aim of achieving water balance at all five breweries by 2030.
In 2025, HEINEKEN Việt Nam marked 15 years of working with authorities, including traffic police, to promote the message “When you drive, never drink”. In addition, 15 per cent of the Heineken® brand’s annual media budget is allocated to responsible consumption campaigns and the promotion of Heineken® 0.0.
High-quality FDI: Building capabilities, not just output
“Việt Nam’s next phase of growth requires more than resources. It requires new capabilities. For HEINEKEN, Việt Nam is where we invest, build capabilities and grow together with local communities,” Crampton said.
He said the contribution of foreign direct investment (FDI) should be assessed in three areas: developing domestic suppliers and talent, driving innovation with partners, and strengthening the wider business ecosystem.
The company’s 2025 figures illustrate its economic contribution. HEINEKEN Việt Nam spent nearly VNĐ22 trillion on procurement from domestic businesses, contributed the equivalent of 0.5 per cent of national GDP and paid more than VNĐ27 trillion in taxes. It ranked among the top five contributors to the State budget in the VNTax 200 rankings. For every direct job, the company supports 58 indirect jobs across the economy.
Over 35 years, HEINEKEN Việt Nam’s development has illustrated how business growth and national prosperity can go hand in hand. As Việt Nam enters a new era of development, the company says it remains committed to investing, innovating and expanding partnerships to contribute to the country’s sustainable development.-VNS
