The Big Interview: Inge Plochaet, AB InBev

One of the most influential women in the beer industry is meeting me in the heart of London’s Square Mile. We’re at The Folly bar, an elegant and stylish place amid the hubbub of the City. It’s relaxed and feels like a retreat, which is somehow incongruous with its corporate location.

And, on introduction, that’s the impression Plochaet gives too: professional, but with a natural approach to business. By her own confession, she loves pubs, beer and walks in the British countryside. But even though Plochaet — a mild-mannered mother of two — may, on appearance, seem a carefree character, her role as AB InBev’s UK & Ireland president belies the guise. Here sits an incredibly purposeful woman — focused and determined to make a difference.

And her CV goes some way to explaining just how she operates. After completing a chemical engineering degree, Plochaet took a job with Procter & Gamble to overhaul its packaging department simply because “it sounded intriguing”.

There aren’t many that can make those kinds of life-changing decisions easily but, oozing self-confidence, Plochaet insists that, for her, it wasn’t a leap of faith — it was simply “the right thing to do”. She has a knack of having a hunch and it being the best decision she’s ever made.

“You have to believe in something absolutely to make it happen,” says Plochaet, admitting it was the same feeling that encouraged her to join Belgian brewer Interbrew (how the company was known prior to merging with Brazilian brewer AmBev to form InBev — it later merged with Anheuser-Busch to become AB InBev).

“It was a really strong feeling,” she says, explaining that it coincided with the desire to stride out of a very restricted corporate environment to join a company that “embraced entrepreneurship at a local level, despite its size”. But she admits that it can be challenging to make everything really personal when you’re dealing with such big brands — unsurprising when you consider Plochaet has the Behemoth that is Stella Artois within her remit.

“I am Belgian, but what attracted me to the UK and this particular role is the love that the Belgians and UK people share for beer,” she says, imploring that, as a company, AB InBev wants to see what kind of longer-term deals it can do and how it can invest in the business, as well as pinning down “what it takes to make the business grow again”.

Plochaet admits: “It’s one of the biggest conundrums and we haven’t quite solved it yet, so it remains our biggest challenge.”

Ongoing investment​
Plochaet has nothing but the utmost respect for her predecessor Stuart MacFarlane and how he shaped AB InBev’s UK business. “Stuart did a stunning job of making our business fit again.” But even so, “I’m taking over the reins, I am starting from the basics”, Plochaet admits.

“The first thing I did, together with the team, when I took over the role at the beginning of last year was to establish our dream — our strategy. It was really important to articulate it,” she says. And what’s the mantra? “Basically, produce, deliver and grow the most premium beer and cider brands,” says Plochaet, knowing we’ll spot the fact that the cider category is now firmly encompassed in the ‘dream’.

And yes, she admits that there are big marketing plans afoot, pointing out that “the investment will be ongoing”.

“We’re also embarking on a big quality and incentive programme this year. Firstly, we’ll make sure the bottom layer of 20,000 pubs have quality chalice glassware, and we’ll be putting a large number of chalices into the trade.

“Then we will focus on 2,000 well-selected outlets where we’re going to get some quality staff training in there. We’ll make it as simple and as clear as possible.

“We’ll make sure that they recommend Stella Artois to their consumers and we’ll show them how to go through a four-step pour,” says Plochaet, adding that the programme will involve mystery visits (AB InBev to reward Stella skills: p33). If pubs pass the mystery-visit test, barstaff will get a personalised ‘credit card’ preloaded with £50. “They can use it as a normal credit card. They can pay anywhere with it.”

So how much has been invested in the scheme? “A couple of million,” says Plochaet.

“First and foremost, we are looking for premium outlets. We want people that will stand behind our product and we’re interested in clean glassware, the right glassware and the perfect pour.”

Plochaet explains that the main aim is for this incentive programme to be rolled out to premium bars and gastropubs. “We were testing it last year in a few pubs — the majority in London — and the feedback was amazing. We saw how engaged the bar-staff became. “We now use their testimonials. It is the best way of selling it because there’s a motivation factor — for them to become ambassadors.”

Plochaet admits that’s the best way to sell — by getting people to talk about how it worked for them. “The strongest way to sell something is to not sell it at all. It’s to have colleagues of people basically talking about what they like, how it worked for them and how it was a really positive thing. It’s about getting people to invest in believing something.”

Sophisticated angle​
And Plochaet certainly believes in her brands, revealing that Stella Artois Cidre will get a lot of support from AB InBev this year, also hinting that, although the focus will be on apple and pear, there are “potentially more fruit variants” in the pipeline too. AB InBev is playing the long game.

“It’s not just about getting to the market as soon as possible, but about making sure you have a really premium product that’s as consumer-centric as possible. With apple we have been extremely successful and our customers have bought into the offer because we have premiumised the category,” she says.

“I think we were the first to bring a new perspective to the cider market when we went for the Continental, sophisticated angle,” explains Plochaet, pointing out that “this was not a gamble — far from it.”

Indeed, AB InBev did its research thoroughly. “The new consumers were really open for it and the results are there. We have the numbers to show for it,” she says confidently.

This is another strength Plochaet exudes — a cool head for business. In terms of planning and having an eye on the future, she’s several steps ahead.  “When we go to see customers we are projecting ourselves two to three years from now.”

So, what’s the impact she’d like to have on the industry? “If I can do anything personally — if there’s any legacy I’d like to leave — it would have to be to emphasise a passion for beer. Intrinsically, it was probably already there [within the company], but I want to emphasise it.

"We’ve got the best portfolio of any brewer. We have very premium and excellent quality beers in Stella Artois and Beck’s.

“Getting that passion and that love for beer first of all fully within the company is my goal, then being able to translate that would be just wonderful.”

Key dates​

1990​
Inge Plochaet finishes chemical engineering degree and starts at Procter & Gamble as packaging development engineer
1995​
She is head-hunted by Interbrew to kick-start its packaging development department
2000​
Plochaet departs the technical field after 10 years to start innovation management in Western Europe
2003​
Moves to the Netherlands to head up retail sales
2006​
Transfers to Belgium to spearhead retail sales
2008​
Leads Western European commercial development as VP commercial (trade marketing/commercial systems/category management)
2012​
Moves here to lead operations as business unit president for UK & Ireland