Heineken ‘has done its fair share’ on S&N pensions

Published on Monday 20 February 2012 00:00

Dutch brewer Heineken appears to have dented hopes of better conditions for Scottish & Newcastle (S&N) pensioners after a three-year battle.

Jean-Francois van Boxmeer, chief executive of Heineken, said the maker of Deuchars IPA, Newcastle Brown Ale and John Smiths had done its “fair share”, despite a refusal to peg annual pension increases to inflation.

Van Boxmeer has agreed to appear before the House of Commons’ business innovation and skills select committee if called as pensioners asked for their case to be considered in a wider review of foreign takeovers of British firms by the government.

The S&N Pensions Group (SNPG) claims a commitment to the Scottish brewer’s tradition of paying inflation-linked annual rises was made in March 2008, before the joint takeover by Heineken and Carlsberg.

“We have been contributing a lot out of the company by recapitalising regularly the funds, so I think we did our fair share,” van Boxmeer said. “I understand the pain but I think we have a strong point which we can defend.”

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Minerva

Monday, February 20, 2012 at 10:18 AM

When they took over the business, did they not take over the liability of running the pension fund, and it's obligations. I worked for a company that had similar pension provisions to those described for S & N. After the company had been taken over, it turned out that, the actuarial value of the pension fund was in excess of requirements and an amount was taken back into company profits. Since the drop in value of the fund because of the recession the company has felt obliged to increase its contributions to maintain the inflation linked pension that I have been happy to have been drawing for the last 20 years. Surely Heinekin's purchase price reflected both their estimate of the value of the business and the value fo the pension fund. If not have they not been running the business like the new owner of Rangers, morally wrong at least.

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