Wow. I thought Europeans hated American beer.
Fuck you InBev! You’ll never get our sweet American lager!
I just heard that Molson-Coors is merging with Miller to become #2 in America. It’s merger season in the liquor industry, apparently. Getting ready for a hard-drinking recession?
I can’t really get too broken up about this, since AB can only be improved by association with the makers of Spaten, Hoegaarden, and Murphy’s. I did notice upon going to their website to see what beers they owned that they’ve already incorporated Budweiser into their selection interface, so I guess this has already been handled behind the scenes and is now being finalized.
I thought this went through during football season, so they could buy out Budweiser’s endorsement spots.
Edit: Also I think that two of the last things people give up during a recession are booze and smokes…
How the hell do rural Chinese afford premium bottled beer? That article talks about rural Chinese who are expected to switch from hard alcohol to beer accounting for a 10% or more increase in sales in the next few years. I thought these guys were making like $1 a day (or $2 if they were gold farming in WoW)?
InBev better hope that this buyout does not effect American jobs at all. If they lay off employees and close plants to move production overseas they’re going to find Americans suddenly developing a taste for Miller/Coors.
Nope.
InBev and A-B actually signed a distribution deal last year giving AB distribution oversight on InBev beers in the US, and giving InBev similar rights to AB stuff in Europe.
Oh good, more varieties of piss water to be shoved in my face in place of good quality beer.
Nope, they won’t–they’ll get Budweiser and Busch instead. Looks like the joke’s on you, InBev!
If Budweiser loses ground, let’s hope Hamm’s and Pabst Blue Ribbon can take up the slack.
Does anyone actually like Budweiser, let alone drink it?
Well, somebody is clearly buying it.
Wow everyone.
Snob much?
Budweiser is terrible beer, drunk with devices such as this:
so you don’t actually have to taste the beer going down…
the Chinese beer market is was already larger than the USA’s by volume sold (306 m hectolitres vs 234.6 hecolitres for the USA, 2005 figures) Apparently, the market is very fragmented, with the top brand “Snow” accounting for only 5% of the market share. I guess it can’t be too hard to grab 6% of market share and be #1.
Also, beer is a lot cheaper in China. Went to China a couple of years ago and I was paying a dime for a decent, big bottle. This was tourist prices too.
The Chinese beer industry produces less than $600 million in annual operating profit on 390 million hectoliters, Credit Suisse said, or around 1.5 U.S. cents a liter. That compares with Miller’s $477 million of 2008 profit in the United States on 48 million hectoliters, or nearly 10 cents a liter.
Belgian Socialists!! Just say no!
There’s nothing wrong with Bud. Budweiser is a little bland, a little sweet and entirely inoffensive. There are about 150 microbrews or foreign beers I’d rather drink before Bud sure, but when I’m a guest at someone’s house and they hand me a Bud I can drink it just fine. And it’s great for outdoor summer barbecue stuff.
Well hell, no wonder they don’t notice they’re using fake toothpaste and baby formula, they’re all pissed out of their minds on 10 cent bottles of beer.
Seriously though, wow, that’s a lot of beer, and they project 10% growth on top of that.
Budweiser sale becomes an election year issue.
Ohnoes, Budweiser might be owned by dirty foreigners!