Boozin’ Blog

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.

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