BY STEVEN WINOKUR    www.TPStrategies.com 

For those of you that haven’t been following the news in the beer industry, there has been much consolidation due to the slowdown in US beer sales. People have been increasingly turning to wine and spirits for their alcohol choices. Recently, InBev agreed in principle to purchase Anheuser-Busch, the maker of Budweiser and Michelob. 

I won’t begin to debate the financial ramifications of this transaction nor its impact on the economy in St. Louis. Looking at this strictly from a brand perspective, it’s a big disappointment. One that I’m surprised hasn’t been mentioned more online (or if it has, I haven’t seen it).  

Can you imagine the uproar if a foreign company bought Coca-Cola? While not quite at that level, Anheuser-Busch is a great American brand - as American as apple pie. Their current television ads even proclaim Budweiser as the “Great American Lager”. Now, certainly you can debate the quality of their beer – but you can’t debate it’s stature as an American brand.  

And now it will be owned by Belgium. From an operations standpoint, both organizations feel that the economies of scale make sense and this will make both groups more money. Have they taken into account what will happen to sales in this country? Will people be upset that the King of Beers no longer lives here? Will people turn more to the micro-brews that are owned by an American company? Or will people even care?  

Ironically, Anheuser-Busch had played the foreign ownership card in its battle with Miller, when they were purchased by a foreign company. They mentioned the fact that they were American owned and Miller was not.   

I for one am saddened by this transaction – Somehow the tagline, “Budwesier - Great American Lager now owned by Belgium” just doesn’t have the same ring.

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