Abstract
This chapter tells about Carlsberg and the expansion of Carlsberg from a regional brewery to an international beer giant with a number three international position. In 1996, Carlsberg got a new CEO and was now ready for a change and and an entry into the international market. This happened at different stages. Between 2000 and 2004, there was a collaboration with Norwegian Orkla, which did not prove completely fortunate. When the parties split, however, Carlsberg had acquired leading Norwegian and Swedish breweries and half of the Russian Baltika. The next step for Carlsberg was to acquire the other half of Baltika, which happened in 2008–2009 in a hostile takeover of the leading British brewery Scottish & Newcastle. The following period has been characterized by a growing competition on the international market, economic problems due to the declining importance of the once prosperous Russian market, and the implementation of new strategies to maintain Carlsberg as a worldwide quality product.
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Notes
- 1.
Board meeting at Carlsberg A/S, 28 August 1997.
- 2.
E-mail 11/4 2018.
- 3.
Conversation 1 March 2018.
- 4.
Gyldendals store danske encyklopædi, “Askeladden”.
- 5.
Orkla’s history since 1974 is exhaustively described in the anniversary publication Brytningstider 1654–2004 (2004) by the three historians Trond Bergh, Harald Espeli, and Knut Sogner. The time after 1991 is described by Harald Espeli, pp. 319 ff.
- 6.
Espeli (2004), p. 319 and pp. 331 ff.
- 7.
Espeli (2004), p. 363.
- 8.
E-mail of 6 May 2008 from Smedegaard to Krogsgaard, which corrects his statements in the newspaper Jyllandsposten the Sunday before and recounts the sequence of events prior to the Orkla agreement.
- 9.
Bent Højgaard Sørensen and Michael Olsen, Berlingske Tidende, Erhverv (18 August 2000), p. 5.
- 10.
Marcus summarized the situation at that time in this way: “We made 3 bold decisions: Changed out the executive board and hired 2–3 serious managers, we rejected some partners, but chose one who could add value without being able take the majority away from the Foundation against our will, and we rejected a development that could have robbed the Foundation of its majority vote, which was very risky business-wise especially in light of the relatively poor economy in traditional Western European markets and in light of the insufficient/weak management we had then”, see his letter of 8 May 2007.
- 11.
Politiken, 7 August 2003.
- 12.
Letter to Carl of 8 December 1868.
- 13.
Do. 9 December 1868. On Carlsberg’s export to England, which was begun in 1869, see Fraenkel (1897), p. 356 f.
- 14.
Do. 17 November 1868.
- 15.
File 402. Carlsberg A/S—Board meetings 2002, in G 273.
- 16.
Case file 402. Carlsberg A/S—Board meetings, in G 273.
- 17.
Letter from Palle Marcus to P. C. Matthiessen of 18 November 2017.
- 18.
Lunde (2008), p. 132.
- 19.
Mentioned by Krogsgaard-Larsen (2011), pp. 173 ff.
- 20.
Espeli (2004), p. 349.
- 21.
NRK 19 Feb. 2004.
- 22.
Espeli (2004), p. 367.
- 23.
Espeli (2004), p. 378.
- 24.
Espeli (2004), p. 368.
- 25.
In Carlsberg’s personnel magazine Kilden and quoted by Lunde (2008), p. 325.
- 26.
Quoted by Swinnon and Briski (2017), p. 60.
- 27.
Børsen, 12 April 2004.
- 28.
Krogsgaard-Larsen (2001), p. 158.
- 29.
Undated memo, The Carlsberg Foundation (in folder Strategy 2011–12).
- 30.
Directive 2004/25/EU of 21 April on takeover bids. The directive is not implemented in Denmark. So, here, too, they were unnecessarily cautious, as it turned out.
- 31.
Krogsgaard-Larsen (2001), p. 198. The member in question was Professor Lene Koch.
- 32.
Lunde (2008), p. 2017.
- 33.
See e-mail from Nils Smedegaard Andersen dated 6 August, which recounts events.
- 34.
Lunde, loc. cit., p. 239.
- 35.
RPT—Carlsberg professors brew big bid, 29 June 2007.
- 36.
Board meeting on 8 October 2007 of Carlsberg A/S.
- 37.
The Sunday Times, 6 April 2008.
- 38.
Berlingske Tidende, 28 November 2011.
- 39.
- 40.
- 41.
COM no. 347 of 28 June 2012.
- 42.
A part of the laboratory was transferred to the Carlsberg Foundation’s second research institute, the Biological Institute of the Carlsberg Foundation, which existed from 1932 to 1981.
- 43.
CFP 44, meeting 18 October 1991.
- 44.
CFP 36, meetings on 1 October and 8 October 1976.
- 45.
Loc. cit., p. 239.
- 46.
Loc. cit., p. 241.
- 47.
Art. 8.1.1.
- 48.
Art. 8.5.2.
- 49.
On this, see Den danske fondsanalyse 2017.
- 50.
Loc. cit., p. 222.
- 51.
He also express the truth with reference to the rules at that time, that, when you “are first elected into the Carlsberg Foundation, you remain there until you step down yourself, possibly far too long”.
- 52.
Serving on the board of the Carlsberg Foundation is thus a time consuming job with a total remuneration (including fee as member of the board of the Carlsberg A/S significantly above (and normally in addition to) a professor’s salary.
- 53.
Former vice-president of the Carlsberg A/S board, Mollerup (1992), p. 79 f, said of the “professors” on the board that, regardless of the fact that they do not have experience from business life, they “often [had] with their academic schooling and background points of view and assessments that attacked problems in a refreshing and untraditional way that, every so often, might give the rest of us occasion to take a more grounded position into consideration.”.
- 54.
Quoted by Robert S. Weinberg in Tremblay and Tremblay (2005), p. IX.
- 55.
Berlingske Tidende, 28 November 2011.
- 56.
Interview with Flemming Besenbacher, Evernote, 2 January 2018.
- 57.
From Newsroom Carlsberg 2017.
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Tamm, D. (2020). 2000—From Regional Brewery to the International Top. In: The Carlsberg Story. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-52670-2_5
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