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A source said it was planning to recruit at least 100 people to facilitate the launch of 5% Heineken, which will be spearheaded by managing director Rob Marijnen and marketing director Leslie Meredith.

Marijnen and Meredith were part of the small team brought in last year to audit the existing situation and recommend a future strategy.

Heineken has decided to bring its UK offering in line with the rest of the world because its licensing agreement with Whitbread is due to expire next year.

Whitbread has had the licence to brew, market and distribute Heineken Cold Filtered and Export for the past £41 years. The end of the Whitbread deal also signals the end of Heineken's longstanding advertising relationship with Lowe - which also creates ads for Stella Artois.

Meredith said she may use advertising created by Heineken's global agencies Bates Asia and D'Arcy New York for the premium brand, but "would not rule out sourcing local work from a local agency".

The launch of the 5% Heineken brand will spell the end for the existing UK premium brand Heineken Export.

Branding for the new Heineken will be consistent with the global identity, which Meredith described as "very similar to Export".

But Meredith said it shouldn't automatically be assumed that the 3.4% Heineken Cold Filtered will be axed too.

"Cold Filtered is the third-biggest beer in the off-trade,

she said.

"We haven't said we definitely want to axe it or keep it because we haven't concluded it would be impossible to be successful with both."

James Dickson, sales and marketing director for Heineken at Whitbread, said no new advertising would be made for Cold Filtered this year. Instead, more investment will be put into the Heineken Cup European rugby tournament and below-the-line marketing.

The last advertising created for Cold Filtered was Lowe's 'celebrity song' campaign starring, among others, Paul Daniels and Debbie McGee.