South Korea’s top beer company, Oriental Brewery, said Thursday that it had appointed Frederico Freire, vice president of Anheuser-Busch InBev APAC, as its new CEO.

Freire replaced Chang In-soo, who was promoted to vice chairman of the firm.

“The establishment of the new leadership reflects an aggressive move to defend our position as the leader in the domestic beer market,” an OB spokesperson said.

Freire joined AB InBev in 1996 and has worked in most of the company’s key posts ranging from sales to manufacturing, purchasing and supply chain, according to officials.

“The global network of AB InBev, combined with OB’s competitiveness in the domestic market, will create a sustainable growth momentum,” the Brazilian CEO was quoted as saying.

The outgoing CEO will cooperate with Freire to help him get settled and build up his network here, indicating that through its new leadership structure OB plans to enhance its presence both at home and abroad, officials explained.

(tellme@heraldcorp.com)