The fight for the premium and pure malt beer market has just gained an additive. More precisely, a production potential of 500 million liters per year of the Heineken and Amstel brands is being added to the capacity of the Dutch brewery in Brazil with the inauguration of the new industrial plant in Passos, in the interior of Minas Gerais.
First project greenfield — built from scratch — by the company in Brazil, the factory officially opened this Thursday (6) begins at a reduced production rate. Initially, the estimate is a production of 120 thousand cans per hour and between 45 and 60 thousand returnable bottles in the first months of the operation. From the middle of 2026, monthly production reaches its maximum rate and, in the full year of 2027, the Passos plant should already produce at its limit.
Heineken’s R$2.5 billion investment is the largest in Brazil in recent years and marks the company’s first brewery opened globally in the last five years. The idea is to meet the growing demand for premium beers in Brazil, a terrain disputed by the Dutch and its biggest competitor, Ambev ().
Take your business to the next level with the country’s top entrepreneurs!
According to data presented by the company itself, the segment of higher quality — and more expensive — beers has increased uninterruptedly since 2011 and today represents a quarter of the entire market. This is where Heineken is located. , also produced by the Dutch company, falls into the category called mainstream. Both, however, are pure malt beers, a category in which the company claims to have a 62.1% market share in terms of volume sold.
“It takes more work to produce pure malt beer, it requires more production capacity”, says the director of the new business area at Heineken Brasil, Rafael Rizzi. Initially, the factory in Passos should supply the markets of Minas Gerais, the interior of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, southern Bahia and a small portion of Goiás.
Although the factory in Passos can be used to produce any other beer of the brand, such as Eisenbahn or Heineken Zero, the idea at first is that the plant will be dedicated exclusively to meeting the demand for premium beers and pure malt.
“There is flexibility, there is technology, there is water, there is the location, which is cool, but Passos’ objective today is to produce Heineken and Amstel. This allows us to make the other operations we have in Brazil more flexible to be able to produce other smaller volume brands, for example”, points out vice-president of production Rodrigo Bressan.
With 1 million square meters and 200 thousand meters of built area, the complex’s design also allows for the expansion of two new plants, increasing production capacity by two or three times. “Here, today, would be the unit in which we would most need to expand, if necessary. It is already suitable for investment, so future investment is lower”, points out Bressan.
Heineken estimates that it has invested more than R$6 billion in expanding its production in Brazil since 2019 and treats the current moment as a consolidation of this cycle. For years, the company has been expanding its market share in a dispute with the Brazilian giant of brands such as Brahma and Original, Ambev.
Continues after advertising
A new chapter of competition was marked by the release of results from the two companies in recent weeks: organic growth greater than 10% in Brazil, with a retraction of around 15% in the volume of beer shipments, Ambev announced that it had gained 15% in sales volume in the premium segment, where it operates with brands such as Original, Stella family and Corona.
Heineken said, however, that it gained “significant market share in a market that saw a high single-digit decline in the quarter.” The company stated that the Amstel and Heineken brands showed a decline, but continue to gain sharewhile Eisenbahn showed strong growth in the affordable premium segment.
