Anheuser-Busch, InBev shake hands
This one slipped by in near silence, but is a striking development in the beer market. Anheuser-Busch, the #1 beer company in the world by dollar sales, has managed to get the rights to market in the US most of the brands of InBev, the world's #1 beer company in terms of volume. Though most American have never heard of InBev, the company (born of a merger between a Belgian and a Brazilian beer company) markets worldwide such brands as Bass, Beck's, Stella Artois, Boddington's, Leffe, Hoegaarden, and Lowenbrau.
Ahheuser did not get the rights to sell Labatt, the Canadian brand family of InBev, and Brahma, the leading Brazilian brand. These are distributed by InBev's US subsidiary.
This is big news. Currently, the InBev brands are mostly distributed in the US by SABMiller and Coors, the #2 and #3 American companies. For Anheuser-Busch, it means instant Access to some of the top, high-profit import brands. It's part of a big expansion by A-B. In February they became the US distributor of Grolsch, a Dutch brewer. It also became the reseller of Kirin beer in the US. Finally, it bought the Rolling Rock brand from InBev.
The key, as noted by an analysts for Fool.com ("Anheuser-Busch: Imports Beckon," 12/5/06) "is an increased presence on the grocery shelf." More room for Bud-allied products press SABMiller, Coors, and especially everyone else. The same is true in the "beer menu" of restaurants and bars. It's another case of elbowing out the competition through the use of number of SKUs, and this time it's not just pseudo variety but a real mix.
7:33:26 PM 
|
|
