ANSON FRERICKS: Let’s All Lift A Glass And Wish For This Famous Beer Company To Become American Again
Anheuser-Busch’s CEO wants to market its beer as “American made,” rather than “domestic”—the term that typically differentiates U.S. beer from “imports.” However, Anheuser-Busch isn’t really an American company. But…
Anheuser-Busch’s CEO wants to market its beer as “American made,” rather than “domestic”—the term that typically differentiates U.S. beer from “imports.” However, Anheuser-Busch isn’t really an American company.
But maybe it’s time to make it one again.
Anheuser-Busch hasn’t been American owned since 2008. That’s the year the 156-year-old American brewer was purchased by its Belgium-based, European rival, Inbev. The company was renamed Anheuser-Busch Inbev, and is now the largest beer company in the world, selling one in four beers globally.
This globalization might have sounded good on paper, but it was a disaster for Anheuser Busch. In 2008, Anheuser-Busch produced over 100 million barrels of beer in the US and employed over 21,000 people. Today, it produces 60 million barrels and has shed thousands of jobs.
The errors compounded over time. Following the takeover, Inbev imported executives from Belgium and Brazil to run sales and marketing in the US. It didn’t work. Marketing execs canceled partnerships with country music festivals and the Ultimate Fighting Championship and replaced them with techno concerts more common in Europe.
Then came the forced plunge into Stakeholder Capitalism, ESG and DEI. In the U.S., companies historically operated to serve shareholders—i.e., to generate profits. The European model is different. It compels companies to serve all stakeholders, including activists, governments, the environment and non-profits.
Around 2018, that started to change. Wall Street firms like BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, began foisting the stakeholder model on U.S. companies. Given its European roots, Anheuser-Busch Inbev quickly went all in.