Drink-a-Pint

I haven’t written much about Belgium-based InBev’s efforts to buy Anheuser-Busch over the past couple of weeks because it involved staggering numbers that made my head spin ($52,000,000,000?), was being talked about in every major newspaper and, quite frankly, I didn’t think it’d actually happen. I mean, what drinks are more American than Budweiser? You’ve got Coke, Pepsi and… and… yeah, that’s about it. Budweiser, as much as I hate to admit it, is the American beer and I never imagined it’d be anything other than that.

Well, you can imagine my surprise when I heard the news this morning that InBev had finally convinced the Anheuser-Busch board to turn over the keys to a foreign company. The Clydesdales, the Budweiser Frogs, the Real Men of Genius, those annoying Wazzzzuuupp guys and even the Clydesdale Donkey are now officially foreigners as another piece of America is sold to the highest bidder.

What did InBev get for their $50 bil? Other than some of the best commercial characters of all time, they’re now the proud owners of forty or so brews including: the Budweiser (Bud, Bud Light, etc), Michelob, Rolling Rock, Landshark Lager, Sun Dog, Bacardi Silver and a ton of distribution deals with labels such as Margarittaville Tequila, Goose Island Beer Co., Kona Brewing Co. (!!!), Starr Hill Brewing and more. (They also got Natural Light, Busch, O’Doul’s and Tequiza, which I say is their loss, not ours… hah…)

So, what’s all this mean for Joe Sixpack beer drinker? Most people who don’t work for Anheuser-Busch probably won’t even notice a difference. Walk into any liquor store and you’ll still see wall-to-wall A-B products. Hell, Guinness & Co. merged with London-based Diageo plc in 2006 for $40 billion Euro and everyone still considers it the alcoholic ambassador of Ireland, so I’m sure Budweiser will still be American’s biggest alcoholic export for many, many years to come.

The real question is how will the sale affect the company’s thousands of employees from coast-to-coast? InBev has reportedly pledged to keep Budweiser as the new company’s flagship brand and St. Louis as its North American headquarters, but you have to wonder about the future of one of St Louis’ biggest employers. While Bud will never be a true “import,” how many of those jobs are already slated to be exported to Belgium or other parts of Europe?