Our Vision and Ambitions
The enjoyment of alcoholic drinks is a centuries-old part of our
culture. For the vast majority of our customers, beer is an
innocent pleasure that helps make their lives more pleasurable. And
we would like it to stay that way.
Naturally, selling beer is Grolsch's core business, and we aim to
sell as much as possible. However, at the same time we also want to
remain vigilant about the potential harmful effects of
irresponsible alcohol consumption, particularly amongst young
people. Parents and guardians have an essential role to play in
this respect. Nevertheless, at Grolsch we need to live up to our
responsibility, as our role is to provide thorough and accurate
information and to behave in a responsible manner.
Grolsch is a strong advocate of self-regulation and enforcement. We
believe that banning alcohol advertising, raising duties on beer
and introducing legal restrictions on the availability of alcoholic
drinks are not the best way to combat alcohol abuse. Instead, only
an approach that focuses on the target group can ensure that those
beer lovers who drink moderately and responsibly can continue to do
so in future.
Our Activities
Grolsch participates in a variety of initiatives intended to combat
alcohol abuse and promotes a number of activities specifically
aimed at encouraging responsible drinking:
- Support for the campaign: 'Not a drop till you turn 16!';
- Support for the designated driver campaign to combat
drink-driving;
- Support for the age-limit/ID campaign of CBL, the Dutch
association of food & drink retailers, requiring under-20s who
buy alcohol in supermarkets to show their ID;
- Assessment of all commercial advertisements by an internal
committee to check compliance with the National Advertising Code
for Alcoholic Drinks and the SABMiller Policy on Commercial
Communication;
- Participation in debates with municipalities, local politicians
etc;
- Support for regional initiatives, e.g. HappyFris to combat
alcohol abuse by youngsters;
- Training for employees to establish the right mindset, increase
their knowledge and play the role of ambassador;
- Grolsch alcohol guidelines for employees;
- Grolsch Walk the Line iPhone application to increase youth
awareness of alcohol abuse.