The Engine Behind Our Strategy
Operating Model
Our Operating Model is about turning strategic thinking into action and delivering results. It defines how we are organized, how we work, and how we stay ahead to ensure future growth—enabling and supporting our Growth and Value Creation Formula.
Royal Unibrew is a multi-beverage and multi-niche company with a decentralized organizational structure that promotes agile decision-making, tailored to meet the preferences of local consumers and customers.
Local Execution With Group Support
Local execution with Group support
Through a decentralized multi-beverage operating model, we produce and sell a portfolio of both non-alcoholic and alcoholic beverages. We operate 20 production sites across 10 countries, primarily serving markets in Northern and Western Europe, complemented by export to international markets.
Our operating model is built around local brand portfolios supplemented by international partner brands. The day-to-day business is managed locally at market level and supported by group functions in relevant areas. Procurement, IT, partnerships, and financial shared services are managed centrally to capture scale benefits and support consistent performance management and systems across the Group, while commercial responsibility sits with local market teams, ensuring clear mandates and strong local ownership of business development. Over recent years, we have strengthened our center of excellence at a Group level to ensure that specialist expertise is available to the local organizations.
Raw Materials
As a supplier of high‑quality beverages, it is crucial for us to maintain a stable and reliable supply of raw materials and packaging components. Our key inputs include water; agricultural products such as barley and sugar; packaging materials including cans, glass bottles, PET bottles, and cardboard; as well as traded goods.
We work closely with our suppliers to secure consistent quality, reliability of supply, and responsible business conduct. All suppliers are required to comply with our Code of Conduct and ethical guidelines, supporting transparency, accountability, and stable long‑term partnerships across the value chain
Production and packaging
We operate production facilities across our core markets and produce most of our beverage portfolio in-house. Multiple beverage categories are typically produced and filled on the same production lines, allowing for efficient asset utilization, operational flexibility, and scale benefits.
Local production is a key element of our operating model, as it ensures proximity to our markets, reduces logistical complexity, and enables fast adaptation to local demand, packaging formats, and customer requirements. Traded products, such as wine, are sourced externally.
Warehousing and distribution
Our route-to-market is a key element of our operating model, ensuring that our product portfolio reaches our consumers and customers efficiently and on time. Finished products are stored at ambient temperatures and distributed through a well-established logistics network. In most multi-beverage markets, we operate a direct-to-customer distribution model, delivering products from our warehouses directly to retail outlets, bars, restaurants, convenience stores, or customers’ central warehouses.
In niche markets and in our international business, distribution is managed through a combination of own distribution, wholesalers, and local partners, ensuring efficient market access, high product availability, and consistent service levels.
Customers
Our customers operate across both the off-trade and on-trade segments, including retailers, wholesalers and distributors, convenience stores, bars, and restaurants.
Our sales consultants in local markets work closely with customers to maximize value for both parties. This includes joint planning of campaigns and promotions, as well as ensuring that our products are placed on shelves and in outlets to support visibility, availability, and sales to end consumers.
Our IT solutions support efficient collaboration with customers and ensure a seamless process with simplified ordering, delivery, invoicing, and settlement, thereby reducing complexity in customers’ daily operations.
Consumers
We serve consumers across a wide range of consumption occasions through both non-alcoholic and alcoholic beverages, including no/low sugar and no/low alcohol alternatives. We continuously follow consumer trends, including the increasing focus on health, well-being, and alcohol moderation to secure relevant new innovations that fit consumer needs.
At the same time, we ensure that our portfolios appeal to different consumer groups, offering both premium brands and products as well as more economically positioned alternatives. This enables us to meet varying preferences, price sensitivities, and consumption occasions across markets and channels.
Affected communities
Our operations impact the environment and the societies we are part of, and we take a structured approach to managing these impacts. Sustainability is embedded in our strategy and shapes how we work with employees, local communities, customers, and partners across the value chain.
We aim to reduce our environmental footprint through targeted CO2e‑reductions and responsible resource use, while supporting responsible consumption with a broad beverage offering.
Our People
Our people are our most important asset. Their skills, commitment, and local knowledge underpin the strength of our brands and the agility of our operating model. We work to provide a safe, inclusive, and engaging workplace that supports collaboration and development. Clear mandates and strong local ownership help ensure that colleagues stay motivated and empowered to contribute to our long‑term success.