KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 4): Heineken Malaysia Bhd has joined 30% Club Malaysia, a local chapter of the global business-led campaign focused on building an ecosystem of businesses to promote diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) with a focus on gender balance on boards and C-suites.

In a statement on Monday, Heineken Malaysia said joining the club further underlines its efforts in promoting inclusion and diversity within the group as part of its 2030 Brew a Better World (BaBW) sustainability commitment.

Launched in May 2015, Heineken Malaysia said the 30% Club Malaysia aims to activate the chairs and chief executive officers to be visible in adopting DEI best practices in their organisations as well as engage wider stakeholders with market influence through its activities.

And with 43% of its board of directors comprising women, Heineken Malaysia believes it is leading by example when it comes to advocating for inclusion and diversity.

This far exceeds the government's target of having at least 30% women on the boards of public listed companies, said Heineken Malaysia. The Dutch brewer is also ranked number two out of 312 Bursa-listed companies in the Board Diversity Index 2021 and has a 50:50 male to female ratio in the middle to senior management positions.

"Our people are at the heart of our company. We recognise that diversity and inclusion are important drivers of performance, and everyone should have equal opportunity to contribute to our business success. We are proud to maintain a healthy gender balance on the board and in management positions to foster effective leadership within the company," said Heineken Malaysia managing director Roland Bala.

As part of the company's global 2030 BaBW sustainability strategy, Heineken Malaysia said the group will have a continued focus on inclusion and diversity.

"In addition to the gender balance, our commitment is to have 65% of country leadership teams in each region to comprise regional nationals by 2023. The target is part of the group's effort in enhancing cultural diversity and local leadership representation.

"Concurrently, we target to train 100% of people managers in inclusive leadership by 2023 in an effort to build on the thousands who have already received training to-date," Heineken Malaysia said.

In working towards fostering a more inclusive and diverse workplace, the company said it created a global community of Functional Inclusion & Diversity Ambassadors who support management teams around the world to deliver its global inclusion and diversity (I&D) goals and to respond to local contexts and opportunities.

"Nominated by the management team, the ambassadors work to facilitate awareness programmes for all people leaders and selected employees from across functions and departments. Since its local roll-out in 2020, approximately 300 Heineken Malaysia employees have undergone I&D training," it said.

For the second quarter ended June 30, 2021, the company returned to the black with a net profit of RM25.27 million compared to a net loss of RM18.19 million in the same period last year, as revenue rose 37.71% to RM349.42 million from RM253.74 million earlier.

For the six months ended June 30, 2021 (1HFY21), net profit surged 154.86% to RM98.81 million from RM38.77 million a year earlier, while revenue grew 16.57% to RM897.16 million from RM769.63 million. The group also declared an interim dividend of 15 sen per share for FY21, payable on Nov 18.

At 4.08pm, Heineken Malaysia slipped eight sen to trade at RM23.02, after falling from a year-to-date peak of RM26.80 on March 11, to value the company at about RM6.95 billion.