Belgium's government collapsed today, but at least they can drink away their sorrows. An American treasure — Budweiser beer — is now Belgian. Perhaps baseball or apple pie will leave us next. For $52 billion Belgian company InBev purchased Anheuser-Busch, pledging to keep the North American headquarters in St. Louis, while cutting $1.5 billion in costs.
The King's defection hits no place harder than its birthplace St. Louis, MO. Anheuser-Busch's reign in the Midwest city dates back to a brewery founded in 1852. If you're keeping track, InBev's first brewery was founded in 1366.
For more on Anheiser-Busch's American legacy, and what my grandparents in St. Louis have to say about this "rotten deal" read more.
Anheuser-Busch may not have survived this millennium, but it did survive US prohibition by introducing ice cream, root beer, and chocolate-flavor drinks, as well as dealcholized Bud in the 1920s. When prohibition ended, the now infamous A-B Clydesdale horses delivered a case of beer to Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the White House.
My Nana and Papa, born and raised in St. Louis, are mourning the end of their hometown icon. Nana remembers the days before air conditioning when you could smell the hops in your home on hot summer days. And Papa will miss checking the newspaper daily to see how the A-B stock is doing.
Are you sad to see the King of beers be bought by a European company, or do you prefer imported beer anyway? So Belgium, this Bud's for you.
KangaROOS
Casadei
D&G
Great!! Now maybe they can change how they brew their beer, and make it drinkable.
1Good Lord! You know it feels like for the past 25 years we've been having a national garage sale and this is just the latest purchase.
Very sad.
2Great post. I'm sad to see it go. But if they can make it more cost efficient while maintaining STL headquarters, and then maybe add a little euro beer flavor to it, it seems like the best of both worlds!
3Isn't this the cost of going global?
4Well, I'm sad that an American company just got sold out overseas, but I never did like to drink the stuff eww.
5Aww, poor Nana and Papa.
I'm not a big Bud fan, either...gimme a Newcastle or a Dos Equis. Or
a vodka tonic. Wow, I need a drink.
6They could have saved money and just purchased urine directly.
7I just hope they don't cut too many jobs in STL.
8Bud was satisfactory to me not great but it'll do. Why couldn't they buy Coors instead, LOL, I guess they knew better.
My favorite is Red Stripe and Guiness.
9
racic!!!
10The horror!
11I'm from originally St. Louis and it's just shocking to me. It's not just the beer, it's the jobs, the charity work, the tourism and other things that Anheuser-Busch (AB) attracts to the city.
Plus the local subsidiaries that they own in STL and smaller companies that they do business with in STL. AB is a important part of the STL economy they pay out more than $500 million in wages to just AB employees alone.
12How did they talk anyone into buying a product like Budweiser???
Gimme a nice cold martini anyday...
13This is very sad! I prefer Red Stripe myself (good taste Hypno), but Bud is an American institution! I think the dollar being of such little value has a lot to do with this.
14I don't drink beer at all, but I agre with Hypno and others, this is just sad. It really does seem that all of America is for sale these days....
15hmm... maybe there is a connection between beer and government after all:
16http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/07/14/internationa...
I gotta tell ya .. not a fan of Bud.
17Vodka on the rocks for me.
18First the Chrysler building and now Budweiser? This makes me so sad. I don't understand why anyone would want to sell these American icons.
19Dear fellow St. Louisans, dust off your old intro to psychology textbooks and look up the chapter on cognitive dissonance, because you're about to go through one of the most epic self-rationalizations since Brett Hull moved to Dallas.
The quips and jabs against the impending deal that you muttered in the past month will slowly be replaced by the following.
* Coors and Miller are already owned by a South African group (SAB Miller), and neither of those beers have gone through any sort of terrible Anti-American metamorphosis.
* InBev will give A-B product distribution channels that it could only dream of, and before we know it Buddhist monks in the Himalayas will be heading for a different kind of mountain.
* A large portion (if not a majority) of InBev is located in Brazil, and so we can still be proud to lift up and toast what remains a Great 'American' Lager
I'm not sure if any of these notions have feet, but let's hope they can get us through the next century or so until the dollar is strong enough to warrant a buy-back.
Until then, here's to Gus's pretzels.
20What's crazy is Busch owns like half of St. Louis...so this actually WILL make a big difference.
21I hope they don't start cutting jobs either. That's the last thing more American's need.
22I hope they don't start cutting jobs either. That's the last thing more American's need.
23I really hope they continue to support STL through charitable contributions. Now I definitely need to get to Grant's Farm before they start charging admission (my bf and I toured the brewery last weekend because he is positive the free tours (and free samples) will end).
24Yeah...I traveled to Belguim once, tasted there beer. It was pretty good. I also hope there is no job loss in this.
25The last time I actually chose to drink Bud (ie. when it wasn't the only thing at the party - hello kegger) was, oddly enough, in Belgium. I had been drinking Leffe (an InBev label) and needed a palate cleanser, and Budweiser was only €1.
26this makes me sad
27I think this is hilarious since Budweiser made such a big deal about being a U.S. company after Miller was bought by South African Breweries.
28That's a good point Torg. Now the only breweries in America are the microbrewerys. There beer tastes better anyway.
29Seriously. Can we tax the heck out of Miller and Bud, since they're exports, and make good, local beer cheaper?
(Though, isn't Coors still based in the U.S.?)
30Sorry guys, our mistake. What we really wanted to buy was the original Czech Budweiser, probably the best lager in the world (mind you I'm Belgian, not Czech!). I'm sorry to say that American Bud tastes like Czech Budweiser that has been drunken before...
31What happens if we find out that AB (secretly, through third parties) purchased controlling shares of InBev, well in advance of this whole Inbev Purchase thing?
you see, U-S has one of the Largest corporate Tax rates in the World. Europe, as a group, lowered theirs, and also, because of corporate 'influence' "adjusted" certain key regulatory statutes, so that corporations can maintain and thrive better, on Their soil as opposed to "our" Soil.
So...It comes to mind this: Secret-Step-Momma AB offers unwittingly-adopted-Daughter InBev to take her in. InBev doesnt realize that new Acquisition is actually Her mother, fully in Control, and While Momma AB (now in charade as 'property-hireling' to 'Boss' Inbev) has to exchange Flags, and 'act' subservient, She's secretly pulling the strings.
now that if reports are correct that the Belgain Government 'collapsed' It wont be the Belgians, who will be reaping the benefits of the InBev 'purchase' It will be AB.
So Folks dont worry if the flags changed. Momma AB just got a HUGE tax burden lifted off her shoulders. AND to make the deal sweeter, gets to keep her location in StL, and (As long as InBev stays none-the wiser) AB just got InBev's Version of 'BudWeiser' under her belt. Now, a few sidesteps and twirls, and with a little bit of luck, AB will control InBev. That is, if the dealmakers aren't a bunch of MORONS!
32Post New Comment
Please share your opinion with our community, but make sure it is on topic and follows our Community Rules. We moderate comments and prohibit personal attacks, threats, spam, lewd images, or the promotion of your personal website.