Anheuser-Busch

Anheuser-Busch

File:A-B Logo.jpg
Company type	Public, NYSE: BUD)
Industry	Beverages
Founded	1852, incorporated in 1875
Headquarters	St. Louis, Missouri USA
Key people	P.T. Stokes (Chairman of the Board), August Busch IV (CEO)
Products	Beers, lagers, malt beverages, energy drinks
Revenue	$15 billion (2006)
Number of employees	24,000 est. (2006)
Website	http://www.anheuser-busch.com/

Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc. (NYSE: BUD) operates the largest brewing company in the United States in volume with a 48.8 percent share of beer sales. Worldwide, Anheuser-Busch's beer sales volume was 121.9 million barrels in 2005. It is the world's third largest brewing company in volume after InBev and SABMiller. 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 is the last large-scale American brewery to be majority owned and operated in the United States.

Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc. (ABC) is the holding company of Anheuser-Busch, Incorporated (ABI), a beer brewer. The Company is also the parent corporation to a number of subsidiaries that conduct various other business operations. ABC's operations comprise four segments: domestic beer, international beer, packaging, and entertainment, which contributed 74.7%, 6.6%, 10.9% and 7.8%, respectively, of the ABC's net sales, during the year ended December 31, 2006. Approximately 93% of the ABC's net sales are generated in the United States. Worldwide sales of the Company's beer brands aggregated 125 million barrels in 2006, which comprises domestic and international volume. International volume represents Anheuser-Busch brands produced overseas by company-owned breweries, under license and contract brewing agreements, plus exports from the Company's United States breweries.

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, nonalcoholic brews, malt liquors (King Cobra and the Hurricane family), and flavored malt beverages (e.g. the Bacardi family and Tequiza). Anheuser-Busch also owns interests in RedHook and Widmer Brothers Brewery.

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. In 1877, Busch introduced the company's first cola - King Cola.

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's international operations, 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.

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 Headquarters and Brewery

See also: Alcohol laws of Missouri

The packaging plant in Saint Louis, Missouri.

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 on the register of 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 Clydesdale horses 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.

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
• 27% of Tsingtao Brewery Company Ltd. in China
• 30% of craft beer Redhook Ale Brewery
• An equity stake in Widmer Brothers Brewery

Beverage products

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

• Budweiser Family
  • Budweiser (World Beer Cup Bronze Medal, 1996)
  • Bud Light
  • Budweiser Select
  • Bud Dry
  • Bud Ice
  • Bud Ice Light
• The Michelob Family
  • Michelob
  • Michelob Light (World Beer Cup Bronze Medal, 2006)
  • Michelob Ultra (World Beer Cup Bronze Medal, 2004)
  • Michelob Ultra Amber (World Beer Cup Silver Medal, 2006)
  • Michelob Honey Lager
  • Michelob AmberBock (World Beer Cup Bronze Medal, 1998)
  • Michelob Golden Draft
  • Michelob Golden Draft Light
  • Michelob Bavarian Wheat
• Busch Family
  • Busch
  • Busch Light
  • Busch Ice
• The Natural Family
  • Natural Light
  • Natural Ice
• Specialty Beers
  • Bud Extra (aka Budweiser E)
  • Bare Knuckle Stout
  • Anheuser World Lager
  • ZiegenBock (Texas only)
  • Ascent 54 (Colorado only)
  • Redbridge (gluten-free)
  • Rolling Rock
• Seasonal Beers
  • Spring's Heat Spiced Wheat (spring)
  • Beach Bum Blonde Ale (summer)
  • Jack's Pumpkin Spice Ale (fall)
  • Winter's Bourbon Cask Ale (winter)
• Non-alcohol
  • O'Doul's (World Beer Cup Gold Medal, 2006)
  • O'Doul's Amber (4 World Beer Cup Medals)
  • Busch NA
• Energy Drinks
  • 180 Blue
  • 180 Sport Drink
  • 180 Energy
• Specialty Organic Beers
  • Stone Mill Pale Ale
  • Wild Hop Lager
• Specialty Malt Beverages
  • Bacardi Silver
  • Peels
  • Tequiza
  • Tilt
• Malt Liquors
  • Hurricane Malt Liquor
  • Hurricane Ice
  • King Cobra (World Beer Cup Silver Medal, 2004)

In addition to brewing beer, Anheuser-Busch also is responsible for the brewing

• Grolsch
• Harbin Lager
• Tiger Beer
• Kirin
• Bass Ale

Advertising

A pre-1911 "shorty" reefer bears an advertisement for Anheuser-Busch's Malt Nutrine tonic. The product was discontinued in 1942.

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, both wild and domesticated, 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.
  • Wild 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
  • Dalmatians, also associated with the traditional Budweiser Clydesdales iconoclasm
• 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.
• They market their beer through the name NASCAR Busch Series and on Dale Earnhardt Jr's #8 Chevy Monte Carlo, 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 Duff Man, 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.
• 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. 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"
• "Cubs 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
• "Under the Anheuser Bush" (an early 1900s popular recording)

Environmental impact

Anheuser-Busch has received numerous awards for its efforts to reduce its impact on the environment. The brewery also operates an environmental outreach program to encourage recycling, energy conservation, and habitat preservation, as well as to prevent littering and water pollution.

Additional subsidiaries

Anheuser-Busch subsidiaries include:

• Busch Entertainment Corp. is one of the largest U.S. theme park operators, with ten parks throughout the country including several Busch Gardens and Seaworld locations.
• Anheuser-Busch Agricultural Operations Produces and enhances the incoming quality of raw materials for the company's beers.
• St. Louis Refrigerated Car Co. Manages rail/truck transload operation and other properties in St. Louis. This subsidiary was established on February 3, 1878 as Anheuser-Busch's first subsidiary to facilitate large-scale distribution of the company's products via the U.S. rail network as part of A-B's decision to promote Budweiser as a nationwide beer brand.
• Manufacturers Railway Co. Provides terminal rail-switching services to south St. Louis industries. Its two trucking subsidiaries provide delivery of cans, bottles and outbound beer for four Anheuser-Busch breweries.
• Metal Container Corp. Produces cans and lids for the company's brewing operations as well as for U.S. soft-drink companies.
• Anheuser-Busch Recycling Corp. One of the world's largest recyclers of used aluminum beverage containers.
• Precision Printing and Packaging, Inc. Produces labels for the company's beer packaging operations as well as for other customers.
• Eagle Packaging, Inc. Supplies 100 percent of Anheuser-Busch requirements for liner material for both the crowns and closures used in beer packaging.
• Owens-Illinois Supplies glass bottles to the Anheuser-Busch breweries around the world including brand new plant in Windsor, Colorado. Anheuser bush bought long horn glass and partnered with O-I to make glass bottles for A-B.
• Busch Properties, Inc. Operates resort, residential and commercial properties.

Anheuser-Busch and the St. Louis Cardinals

The St. Louis Cardinals baseball club were owned by Anheuser-Busch from February 20 1953 until it was sold to a group of private investors on March 21 1996. Busch Memorial Stadium, paid for and built by the brewery in the mid-1960s, was recently demolished and replaced by a new ballpark. Anheuser-Busch signed an agreement for the new ballpark to retain the "Busch Stadium" name on the new building through 2025.

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 (b.1805-d.1880) predecessor company E. Anheuser & Co.

1880-1913 Adolphus Busch (b.1839–d.1913) incorporated Anheuser-Busch in 1875

1913-1934 August A. Busch, Sr. (b.1865-d.1934)

1934-1946 Adolphus Busch III (b.1891-d.1946)

1946-1974 August A. "Gussie" Busch, Jr. (b.1899-d.1989)

1974-2002 August A. Busch III (b.1937-)

2002-2006 Patrick Stokes (b.1942-)

2006-pres. August A. Busch IV (b.1964-)

External links

• Anheuser-Busch Website
• Anheuser-Busch Web Page on the St. Louis Brewery Tour
• Anheuser-Busch stock performance chart

Notes

38°35′51″N 90°12′43″W