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Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc. (NYSE: BUD) operates the largest brewing company in the United States in volume with a 48.8% share of beer sales. Worldwide, Anheuser-Busch's beer sales volume was 121.9 million barrels in 2005. It is the world's fourth largest brewing company based on revenue, after SABMiller, InBev and Heineken International. The company is based in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. "A-B", as the company is often called, operates 12 breweries in the United States and nearly 20 others overseas.

Anheuser-Busch was the last large-scale American brewery to be majority owned and operated in the United States. It has since merged with InBev.

Anheuser-Busch's best known beers include brands such as Budweiser, the Busch (originally known as Busch Bavarian Beer) and Michelob families, and Natural Light. The company also produces a number of smaller-volume and specialty beers, non-alcoholic brews, malt liquors (King Cobra and the Hurricane family), and flavored malt beverages (e.g., Tequiza).

Bob Chypre a tort Anheuser-Busch brews over 40 different beers and malt liquors, which have won 12 World Beer Cup awards.

  • Budweiser Family
  • Michelob Family
    • Michelob
    • Michelob Light (World Beer Cup Bronze Medal, 2006)
    • Michelob Honey Lager
    • Michelob AmberBock (World Beer Cup Bronze Medal, 1998)
    • Michelob Golden Draft
    • Michelob Golden Draft Light
    • Michelob Bavarian Wheat
    • Michelob Porter
    • Michelob Pale Ale
    • Michelob Dunkel Weisse (available Late 2008)
  • Ultra Family
    • Michelob Ultra (World Beer Cup Bronze Medal, 2004)
    • Michelob Ultra Amber (World Beer Cup Silver Medal, 2006)
    • Michelob Ultra Lime Cactus
    • Michelob Ultra Pomegranate Raspberry
    • Michelob Ultra Tuscan Orange Grapefruit
  • Busch Family
    • Busch
    • Busch Light
    • Busch Ice
  • The Natural Family
    • Natural Light
    • Natural Ice
  • Specialty Brews
    • Bud Extra
    • Bare Knuckle Stout
    • Anheuser World Lager (discontinued)
    • ZiegenBock
    • Ascent 54 (Colorado only)
    • Redbridge (gluten-free)
    • Rolling Rock
    • Landshark Lager
    • Shock Top
    • Skipjack Amber Lager (Mid Atlantic Only)
    • Wild Blue
  • Seasonal Beers
    • Sun Dog (spring)
    • Beach Bum Blonde Ale (summer)
    • Jack's Pumpkin Spice Ale (fall)
    • Winter's Bourbon Cask Ale (winter)
  • Non-alcoholic
    • O'Doul's (World Beer Cup Gold Medal, 2006)
    • O'Doul's Amber (4 World Beer Cup Medals)
    • Busch NA
    • Budweiser NA (Saudi Arabian Market)
    • Budweiser NA Green Apple (Saudi Arabian Market)
  • Specialty Organic Beers
    • Stone Mill Pale Ale
    • Wild Hop Lager
  • Malt Liquors
    • Hurricane Malt Liquor
    • Hurricane Ice
    • King Cobra (World Beer Cup Silver Medal, 2004)

Anheuser-Busch has minority holdings in the following brewers:

  • Red Hook Brewing
  • Widmer Bros. Brewing

Anheuser-Busch has distribution alliances with the following craft brewers:

  • Goose Island Beer Co.
  • Kona Brewing Co.
  • Ray Hill American Pilsner
  • Starr Hill Brewing
  • Fordham Brewing
  • Dominion Brewing

In addition to brewing its own beer, Anheuser-Busch also imports and distributes the following international beers in the U.S.:

Packaging[]

Depends on the product. Mainline products are available in kegs, cans, and bottles. Bottles and cans are available in six-packs, twelve-packs, and cases. Cans are also available in thiry-packs.

Advertising[]

The company is known in the United States for its huge advertising presence, including a sports marketing division which creates advertising material for the Super Bowl and many other sporting events. Famous Busch television campaigns have included:

  • Clydesdales, used both at liberty and being driven in harness, such as:
    • The Budweiser Clydesdales pulling traditional beer wagons
    • The traditional holiday spot featuring the Clydesdales pulling a sleigh through a snowy town, concluding with a closeup of a wreath on a door.
    • Clydesdales playing football (with a couple cowboys as the audience, and a zebra for a referee)
    • A donkey that thinks he's a horse and wants to be one of the Budweiser Clydesdales
    • A Clydesdale foal, who dreams of making the hitch, pretending to pull the beer wagon, which is secretly being pushed from behind by his Clydesdale parents.
  • Dalmatians, also associated with the traditional Budweiser Clydesdale iconography
  • The "Gimme a light" spots;
  • "You can call me Ray, or you can call me Jay" (as referenced in Being There and The Simpsons)
  • Frogs saying "Bud-weis-er." The ad campaign later spawned additional characters: Louie and Frankie the chameleons and an inept ferret hit man.
  • The annual Bud Bowl.
  • The "Waazzzup" series.
  • The "Real American Heroes/Real Men of Genius" series of humorous radio and television ads.
  • In the past they have marketed their beer through the name NASCAR Busch Series and on Dale Earnhardt Jr's #8 Chevy Monte Carlo. Currently they sponsor Kasey Kahne's #9 Dodge Charger as well as numerous campaigns in the NHRA such as The Big Bud Shootout at the US Nationals and major sponsorship with Kenny Bernstein Racing
  • Bud Man is an advertising character for Budweiser beer. He is a superhero and appears on many products aimed at coeds on University campuses. He also inspired Duffman, a character on The Simpsons.
  • In the UK when Budweiser became the sponsor of the Premiership football league, a humorous series of adverts showed involving the subsequent (fictional) 'Americanisation' of the game, including such ideas as giving the teams more exciting names (The Portsmouth Pirates) and the merging of longtime rival teams Manchester City and Manchester United into one Team Manchester, all with the tagline "you do the football, we'll do the beer". Ironically, A-B, based out of a city where soccer has always been popular, is sponsor of the St Louis (formerly Busch) Soccer Club and owns the Anheuser-Busch Center in suburban Fenton, Missouri, whose main attraction is a 10,000-seat soccer park that hosts the Missouri state championships.
  • Current television commercials use the slogan "King of Beers."

Recently, Miller Brewing began a series of commercials which featured "referees" calling "penalties" on people for drinking Bud Light, and they would then take the Bud Light and replace it with Miller Lite. Anheuser-Busch responded with their own "referees" commercials in which referees were taking people's Budweiser and keeping it for themselves.

The company has long been known for its jingles. A few of them are:

  • "Here Comes the King" - heard annually over Christmas ads featuring Clydesdales
  • "When You Say Budweiser, You've Said It All"
  • "Cub Fan, Bud Man" - a Blues Brothers homage (based on their version of "Soul Man") done by Harry Caray for WGN-TV broadcasts of Chicago Cubs games
  • "There Is a Tavern in the Town" - old song with wording changes including "Busch" instead of "wine"
  • "Under the Anheuser Bush" (an early 1900s popular recording)

History[]

Anheuser-Busch began as a small brewery located in St. Louis, Missouri. In 1860, Eberhard Anheuser, a German-born prosperous soap manufacturer, became owner of the struggling brewery. Adolphus Busch, Anheuser’s son-in-law, became partner in 1869, and became president when Anheuser died in 1880.

Adolphus Busch was the first U.S. brewer to use pasteurization to keep beer fresh, the first to use artificial refrigeration and refrigerated railroad cars and the first to bottle beer extensively. In 1876, Busch introduced America’s first national beer brand: Budweiser.

Anheuser-Busch became the largest brewer in the United States in 1957. It today produces about eleven billion bottles of beer a year.

Anheuser-Busch International, Inc. was established in 1981 and is responsible for the company's foreign beer operations and equity investments.

Today, Anheuser-Busch operates 12 breweries and several theme parks in the United States and has operations around the world.

On June 12, 2008, Belgo-Brazilian brewing company InBev announced that it has made a US$46 billion offer for the company.[1] If successful, it would join two of the world's four largest brewing companies (based on revenue) and create a company that brews three of the top beers in the world - Bud Light, Budweiser and Skol. InBev also stated that the merger would not result in any U.S. brewery closures and they would also attempt to keep on management and board members from both companies. [2] On June 25, 2008, Anheuser-Busch officially announced that they would reject InBev's offer and provide a restructuring of company to maintain shareholders and United States World Headquarters in St. Louis. [3] On July 1, 2008, InBev urged Anheuser-Busch shareholders to vote in favor of the buyout as InBev felt the offer of $65 a share should be considered a reasonable offer in view of the falling stock market. The company has previously filed suit in Delaware, after the rejection of their offer, to ensure that the stockholders could oust Anheuser-Busch's 13 board members. [4]

Corporate leadership[]

Patrick Stokes is the current Chairman. August Busch IV is the President and CEO. Both men assumed their titles on December 1, 2006.

A chronology of past corporate leaders (President and CEO) is as follows:

  • 1860–1880 Eberhard Anheuser (1805–1880) predecessor company E. Anheuser & Co.
  • 1880–1913 Adolphus Busch (1839–1913) incorporated Anheuser-Busch in 1875
  • 1913–1934 August A. Busch, Sr. (1865–1934)
  • 1934–1946 Adolphus Busch III (1891–1946)
  • 1946–1974 August A. "Gussie" Busch, Jr. (1899–1989)
  • 1974–2002 August A. Busch III (b. 1937)
  • 2002–2006 Patrick Stokes (b.1942)
  • 2006–pres. August A. Busch IV (b.1964)

United States breweries and headquarters[]

In the United States, Anheuser-Busch operates 12 breweries:

  • St. Louis, Missouri (world headquarters)
  • Baldwinsville, New York
  • Cartersville, Georgia
  • Columbus, Ohio
  • Fairfield, California
  • Fort Collins, Colorado
  • Houston, Texas
  • Jacksonville, Florida
  • Van Nuys, Los Angeles, California
  • Merrimack, New Hampshire
  • Newark, New Jersey
  • Williamsburg, Virginia

St. Louis corporate world headquarters and brewery[]

Anheuser-Busch world headquarters is located in St. Louis, Missouri. The brewery there, the largest of the Anheuser-Busch breweries, was opened in 1852 and includes three buildings that are listed as National Historic Landmarks. At the headquarters, near downtown Saint Louis, free tours of the brewery are available to the public. The tour takes visitors through the complex, and those of the legal age can enjoy two free glasses of any Anheuser-Busch product in the Hospitality Room at the end of the tour. Tourists can see beer being made live in front of them in hot and steamy vats in a working part of the brewery (from behind plexiglas shields).

The company keeps a rotation of its famous Budweiser Clydesdales at its headquarters, and visitors to the brewery can observe the Clydesdales in their exercise field and see their places in the carriage house. The bulk of the herd is kept at the company farm in St. Louis County. The farm, known to many a St. Louisan as Grant's Farm (having been owned by former President Ulysses S. Grant at one time), is also home to a varied menagerie of animals. The current manager of the famous Clydesdales is Benjamin Underwood.

The brewery was designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 1966[5] The landmarked area includes 189 structures spread over 142 acres, including many red brick Romanesque ones "with square crenelated towers and elaborate details."[5] The Brew House, built in 1891-1892, is particularly notable for its "multi-storied hop chandelier, intricate iron-work, and utilization of natural light".[5]

International breweries[]

Overseas, Anheuser-Busch operates 15 breweries - 14 in China and one in the United Kingdom; In China, A-B operates Budweiser Wuhan International Brewing Company, Ltd. and Harbin Brewery Group Ltd which A-B fully acquired in 2004. Chinese production of AB products in China started, in Wuhan, after their purchase of a local brewery in 1997. In the United Kingdom, the Budweiser Stag Brewing Company Ltd. produces and packages Budweiser.

Budweiser is also locally brewed in eight countries outside the United States. They are: Argentina, Canada, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Russia, South Korea and Spain.

Anheuser-Busch strategic equity investments include:

  • 50% of Grupo Modelo in Mexico[6]
  • 27% of Tsingtao Brewery Company Ltd. in China[6]
  • 34% of craft beer Redhook Ale Brewery[7]
  • 40% of Widmer Brothers Brewery[7]

References[]

External links[]

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