Freddy Heineken

Freddy Heineken was the founder's grandson, not the founder, and he bought back family control in the 1950s after spending time in New York learning American advertising. He treated the beer as an export brand first: the green bottle, red star and smiling lowercase e were designed to travel, and the American importer Leo van Munching built the US trade that made Heineken a premium import there. Owning the brand and licensing or acquiring local brewers became the template for its spread.