Heineken Vietnam opens South-East Asia’s largest brewery
Covering an area of 40 hectares in My Xuan A Industrial Zone, Phu My – Ba Ria Vung Tau, the brewery was acquired by Heineken in 2017 and increased its capacity 36 times over in the last five years. It now boasts an annual capacity of 11 million hectoliters.
To a large extent, the Vung Tau brewery has automated operations in the beer making process from raw material delivery, brewing, filtration to delivery for packing: ‘making it the most productive Heineken brewery in the world’.
In the Packaging Hall, every two canning lines – each filling 130,000 cans an hour, are manned by just five technicians. The four high-speed canning lines in Vung Tau brewery, which can altogether fill 12 million cans a day, are among the fastest in all Heineken breweries in the world.
The brewery is also considered the innovation hub for Heineken Vietnam. Since 2015, it has introduced seven new products to the Vietnamese market: including Strongbow cider, Tiger Platinum, Edelweiss and Heineken 0.0.
Sustainability
The brewery covers an area of 40 hectares, of which over 10 hectares (27%) has been planned for gardens and green spaces. The brewery benefits from natural lighting and ventilation: 615 transparent domes have been installed on top of buildings to allow natural light and fresh air into the brewery and help reduce total energy consumption.
Since Heineken acquired the site in 2015, the brewery has cut energy consumption by almost a half (48%) on a per hectoliter basis. Currently, 97% of the demand for thermal energy comes from a biomass plant just across the street in My Xuan Industrial Zone. In line with Heineken Vietnam’s 2025 Sustainability Ambition, the brewery has a plan for renewable electricity implementation.
Vung Tau is also the most water efficient of all Heineken breweries in Asia Pacific: now using 2.32 liters of water to make one liter of beer (including the water going into the beer). After the brewing process, wastewater at Vung Tau brewery is treated to grade A standard, and 8% of the water is reclaimed and used for cleaning purposes in the brewery. The brewery is sending zero waste to landfill.
Over the last five years, Heineken Vietnam Vung Tau Brewery has formed a business eco-system with more than 46 companies in and around My Xuan, and indirectly supporting more than 200 jobs locally outside the brewery walls. During the peak of its expansion, the brewery created approximately 1,000 jobs ranging from design and construction, to engineering and gardening. The brewery is also among the top 3 budget contributors through taxes in Ba Ria - Vung Tau Province.
