AB InBev beckons investors – again

ANHEUSER-Busch InBev (AB InBev) is the biggest brewer in the world, headquartered in Belgium; they have 155 000 employees in 25 countries. The original Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev) was formed in 2008 through successive mergers of three international brewing groups: Interbrew from Belgium, AmBev from Brazil and Anheuser-Busch based in St Louis, Missouri, US.

The roots of the company go back to 1852 when the German-American brewer and saloon operator George Schneider opened the Bavarian Brewery in the US.

Financial problems forced the sale of the brewery to various owners during the late 1850s. In 1860, the brewery was purchased on the brink of bankruptcy by William D’Oench, a local pharmacist, and Eberhard Anheuser, a prosperous German-born soap manufacturer. Adolphus Busch, a German immigrant, married Eberhard Anheuser’s daughter, Lilly, in 1861.

He began working as a salesman for the Anheuser brewery.

He was the first American brewer to use pasteurisation to keep beer fresh and the first to use mechanical refrigeration and refrigerated railroad cars.

Today they have a portfolio of 200 brands, of which 16 have annual sales more than $1 billion (R13.25bn).

Some of the well-known names are Budweiser, Stella-Artois, Bud, Corona, Becks, Skol and Victoria.

In September 2015 they made an offer to buy the darling of the JSE, SABMiller, by then the second largest brewer in the world. For two years they had to jump through numerous regulatory hoops to please competition authorities worldwide.

Bedding down the merger of the two biggest brewers could also not be an easy task and consumed management’s attention.

Now it seems to be done and dusted, and the benefits of synergies realised from the merger are starting to flow through to the bottom line.