Anheuser-Busch
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Categories: Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange | All articles with unsourced statements | Articles with unsourced statements since March 2007 | NPOV disputes from January 2008 | Anheuser-Busch | Beer and breweries in multi regions | Companies based in St. Louis | Busch family | Companies established in 1852 | National Historic Landmarks in Missouri | Amusement park companies | Eclipse Award winners
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 InBev, SABMiller and Heineken. The company is based in Saint 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 Silver family and Tequiza). Anheuser-Busch also owns interests in RedHook and Widmer Brothers Brewery.
HistoryAnheuser-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 HeadquartersIn the United States, Anheuser-Busch operates 12 breweries:
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 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 breweriesOverseas, 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:
Beverage productsAnheuser-Busch brews over 40 different beers and malt liquors, which have won 12 World Beer Cup awards.
In addition to brewing its own beer, Anheuser-Busch also is responsible for the brewing of the following international beers: 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:
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:
Environmental impact
Anheuser-Busch has received numerous awards for its efforts to reduce its impact on the environment.[1] 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. [2] Additional subsidiariesAnheuser-Busch subsidiaries include:[3]
Anheuser-Busch and the St. Louis CardinalsThe 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. Wholesalers and distributorsAnheuser-Busch delivers its products to retailers through a large network of wholesalers and distributors.[4] In the United States, there are about 800 of these;[5] one of the largest is Hensley & Co. in Phoenix, Arizona, with yearly sales of over 20 million cases of Anheuser-Busch beers.[5] Corporate LeadershipPatrick 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:
References
External links
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