Beer Drinkers Could Toast Anheuser Takeover?

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charper1

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May 18, 2004
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I think this topic was originally in the PIT so I am restarting it here.

I was not too upset as many were about thi, but here is a decent read. I happen to agree with this.


Beer drinkers could reap some unexpected short-term benefits as Anheuser-Busch's "King of Beers" becomes a vassal in a much larger empire run by Belgium's InBev.
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Once InBev's $52 billion takeover of Anheuser gets approved, it will be able to use Anheuser's far-reaching U.S. distribution network to sell its own beers, introducing brews such as Stella Artois, Hoegaarden, Leffe and Staropramen to drinkers across the United States.

"That could be one of the secret upsides" to this deal, said Harry Schuhmacher, editor and publisher of Beer Business Daily. "You can get a Stella anywhere in New York, but you can't get one anywhere in San Antonio."

Anheuser's Budweiser and Bud Light are the world's top-selling beers, but are not growing much in the United States as many consumers have switched from domestic beers to wine, spirits, imported beers or small-batch "craft" beers.

Anheuser and InBev had a deal whereby Anheuser distributed some of InBev's higher-priced beers, but did not make much money off the deal, Schuhmacher said. Now that all the beers would be under the one roof, there is more financial incentive to get those imports into bars and stores, he said.

"This takeover gives the average consumer more choices," said Benjamin Akande, dean of Webster University's School of Business and Technology, based in a suburb of St. Louis. "It also possibly introduces some efficiencies in terms of pricing. Overall, I think the average beer drinker will get more choices at more affordable prices."

Those choices come at the expense of some wounded pride.

"It saddens me that a large, truly American company has become just a fraction of a larger, homogenized global corporation," said Michael Coakley, a Bud Light drinker from Hoboken, New Jersey. "However I doubt that quality or pricing ... will change much at all."

While people mourn the lost independence of an American icon, the combined company - which will be the world's largest brewer - may help them drown their sorrows.

"The first effect (on consumers) will come from InBev's proclivity to sell on price. They are street fighters," said Tom Pirko, president of Bevmark, a beverage industry consulting firm. "To offset the lingering negativity of the AB deal, they are going to give away some suds."

Yet not everyone is bothered by the transaction.

"They're not changing the formula. Nothing's going to change," said Richard Freed, a regular drinker at Jimmy's Corner, a bar in midtown-Manhattan. "The average guy doesn't even know it was taken over."
 
My feelings too. I will drink AB in a pinch, but prefer numerous others that hopefully will now get more exposure nationwide.
 
It doesn't really matter what kinds of beer InBev brings to the American market as they all get butchered to meet US standards and will barely reassembly their European counterparts. I am sad to see a great American icon go down like this thou.
 
That has not happened with any of the ones I have had, but that's not saying it might not. I would not see it as the rule though.
 
It doesn't really matter what kinds of beer InBev brings to the American market as they all get butchered to meet US standards and will barely reassembly their European counterparts. I am sad to see a great American icon go down like this thou.

+1

I also hope this doesn't lead to job losses in St. Louis....
 
So the King of Beers now answers to the Emperor of Beers.
 
Concerning the "Americanization" of imports, Killian's is a great (bad ?!?) example of a likely outcome. I also find Canadian beers consumed in that country to be superior to what is sold south of our common border.

The only AB product I buy now is Natural Ice. My reasons are detailed in another thread and won't be repeated here. Net of that I much prefer other beers with more "quality". Define that as you will, but the average American beer (swill!) brewed for the masses falls far short in my mind, and that includes almost all AB products even my AB brew of choice! Plenty of other threads on the quality topic.

I too mourn the loss of yet another American business icon. It's a global economy and only the strong will survive. Strength comes in numbers. I just hope the impact on the product and hence to those who buy it, and ultimately that which makes AM/InBev the strong company it should be moving forward, will be minimal. As a minimum I expect "rightsizing" as is inevitable in all mergers, and that will certainly impact another group of stakeholders - those who make the product. Only time will tell...
 
only time time I drink AB is when we visit the brewery, otherwise, never liked any of thier beers.
 
I have always drank AB products but I won't anymore. It's too bad Busch bought out so many other American beers and wine coolers over the last 10 years before this happened because when they were being bought out at least they were still this country's. Now look what we got!
 
You'll still get the same exact beer, made with the same exact ingredients, made in the same exact plant. Just owned buy another group of people; no need to go off the deep end!
 
Even in a financial pinch, I try like hell not to compromise on my 2 favorite beverages, beer & coffee :) and as for beer, the first priority is it has to come in a barrel size that will fit our kegerator.

If this deal will make some of those imported beers available up here in draft form, that would be good but they'll have to go some to compete with some of the really great micro breweries we have in Vermont.

I grew up on Bud, Schlitz, Miller, Renigold & Knickabocker - I don't ever want to go back there.:D
 
My, how I'd like a nice cold Falstaff right now. Oh. Well how about a Regal? Jax?

I guess I'm just going to have to "settle" for Foster's on tap. :p
 
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