Even If Inbev Buys Anheuser-Busch Budweiser Will Be OK
Surely by now you’ve heard of the bid for Anheuser-Busch that Inbev is rumored to be considering. At this point there’s only rumor and speculation but this is often how these things first appear in the world of big business before becoming reality.
There’s enough real to this rumor to make Bloomberg columnist David Pauly wring his hands fretfully about the fate of his beloved Budweiser. Never fear, Dave, Bud will be safe. Given past performance I doubt that Inbev will dismember nor significantly alter the well-known brand. There might be some shuffling and shifting of small aspects of Bud but the taste and the general market position of it will remain largely intact.
The real danger of the Inbev takeover is what it will mean to the craft beer industry. The story of such take-overs in Europe has been one of the race to the bland. When big beer companies like Inbev take over smaller brewers their big, recognizable brands remain but the smaller product lines tend to get choked off.
Anheuser-Busch, on the other hand, long ago recognized the potential of the craft beer industry in America. They have been working on long-term strategies to claim as much of that part of the market as they can. The “faux crafts” of A-B are well known. Lesser known is the huge investment that A-B has put into independent brewers. Deals like the one famously made with Redhook more then fifteen years ago are far more common these days than most beer drinkers realize. A-B owns minority shares in small, regional brewers all over the country and has made distribution and marketing available to these brewers that otherwise would have been out of reach.
Does Inbev understand to potential of this market? I doubt they care. Although A-B’s motives are no less based in profit they have the ability to think long term while Inbev’s exploits seem more focused on a slash and burn policy designed to produce quick profit.
By the way, I recognize that fans of Rolling Rock with memories must now think that I’m completely nuts.
anheuser busch budweiser craft beer inbev takeoverFiled under: Beer, inbev, anheuser-busch on May 31st, 2008 |
I am a Anheuser-Busch employee. Foreign purchases of American companies have been on my mind for several years now as I have watched many slip quietly into foreign hands. Most Americans don’t even know that their dollars are now filtering out of the country to fund international projects and not being re-invested back into our economy. No wonder we are struggling. With the dollar at all time lows we are about to be sold down the river as a county. We (Anheuser-Busch) have been aggressively cutting costs to stay competitive in the marketplace while maintaining product quality that is second to none. The five year plan sets out goals that are almost identical to InBev’s cost cutting strategy. Comments that a Brazilians / Belgians team can make more money for the stock holders is propaganda and designed to convince stockholders to sell. Wake up America, please wake up before it is too late.
[…] the issue. European beer giant Inbev appears to be making moves to take over Anheuser-Busch. As I pointed out previously I doubt that this will have much of an effect on the major products like Budweiser, Michelob, […]
Cindy McCain owns an Anheuser-Busch distributorship. If a Belgian company buys AB, will Mrs. McCain need to register as a foreign agent?
http://notionscapital.wordpress.com/2008/06/12/cindy-mccain-foreign-agent/
I’am belgian,
Belgium is known for his good beers. (I never have drinking budwieser so I wont give an opignion about the quality). It’s sad for us to see how ‘heineken’, the worlds beer leader is such a succes while belgians and people of the netherlands know belgian beers tasts mutch better then heineken.
The dutch are just very good marketiers. They know how to sell a product.
Its frustrating for us too to see how the dutch beer is dominating the world while belgian beer has a higher quality. But that’s just marketing..
Also a lot of local belgian beers are taken by inbev or other big company’s. And its sad. Bud hey, after al you still can buy your beer, it will tast the same, and everyone will link the beer to its original hometown.
Except for in the beer trade, the US is one of the proponents in open market economics. Lot of belgian company’s have been taken over by americans due to this. Its not fun, but we dont make a total big deal of it like the budweisser-hype nowerdays..
For once americans are confronted with their own open marked idealism, they suddenly think its unexaptable.
I think it is fair to say that if America looses Budweiser it will break the hearts of millions. CNBC takes viewers inside America’s 130 year love affair with the King of Beers. Premiering as the iconic American brand fends off a hostile takeover by Belgian conglomerate InBev, CNBC’s “American Originals: Budweiser” taps into the Budweiser you’ve never seen before. Could this be the last call for Bud? Watch CNBC on Thursday, July 17 at 9p/12a ET. Click here for web highlights.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/25348737/?__source=bg|pst|budprem|07102008|&par=bg