If only they were as good at brewing beer as they are laying people off and running gold-standard multinationals into the ground. Sickening.

This is, unfortunately, not the first time this has happened at AB. The oldtimers will remember 1974 when heads were literally rolling down Pestalozzi street after old man Busch went off his nut. That was just before he was deposed by AAB III. The difference now, of course, is that these actions are being directed by an outside enemy who delights in posing as a benevolent new owner. InBev is scum, top to bottom, but Brito is by far the worst because he pretends to be otherwise. When the union contract runs out in 5 years, so will the life span of our company.

And we sit anxiously and nervously at the distribution warehouse in MT Vernon waiting for our slips. Just sickening.

I just hate it when Potsi and Fonzi come up with some crazy financial scheme to buy Budweiser with Burrito. That is why my conscience can no longer support such treachery and dearth. Henceforth, I shall only buy Schlafly beer. Long live Schlafly…

second round,bet they dont get the waren act two months that brito hated the 1st round. what a chump brito turned out to be. when asked about what they will learn from A-B his comment was ” we bought them out, we will learn nothing from them but they will learn from us.” and what about last weeks hearing with the fire marshal, about how many people could occupy the 9th floor. what arrogance when the third world idiots told St.Louis ” you need to change your laws.” hey the fire dept. thinks about peoples lifes and safety, something that we are seeing that brito doesnt care about. pabst for me and I still work there.

hey d. hu—–. your relitive still comes in at 9:30-10 a.m. and gone by 4p.m. she should have been gone but hey lets keep relitives and get rid of good employees, are you related to brito?????

If anybody is interested in a complete list of AB-InBev products as of Tuesday, email me at tlund@ me.com. It’s scary and hard to believe that our government could let this happen. The list — including energy drinks and so forth — totals 307 products. It took some digging, and I think that’s because they really (InBev) don’t want people to know what they own.

We are hearing that 50 people will be let go between Procurement, Master Data, & Raw Materials departments.

Hey ccccc - I don’t know who you are, but you make me laugh every time you post. I wish I could have seen the fire marshal’s face when the Boys from Brazil suggested a change in the law. Those elitists want a city like Sao Paulo - where the rich are really really rich, and the poor live in shanties with dirt floors. Please keep posting, ccccc. You make my day by exposing these guys for what they are - jerks.

As a lifetime St Louis resident. InBev is not the enemy. AB stockholders passed this, and the firm has been so fat and over employed for too long. This is the nature of the beast. AB was a fat fat company, and perhaps now InBev can pass savings on to consumers.

“pass savings on to consumers.” That’s a good one!!

dwntwn smarts

Are you kidding me??????? While I am not questioning your dwntwn smarts, I am questioning your business smarts. Do you really think trimming the fat is going to lower your cost for a Budweiser. Prices will not come down, and all that money that was being paid to your so called fat and being spent in St louis is now going to Belgium. Someone that proclaims to have that much dwntwn smarts may want to look at taking an econmics class.

I feel sorry for anyone going though this process. Expect the HR person to be cold and indifferent. Even though the day before you may have doing work that made money for the company and being completely professional.
They bring you in a cold room and treat you as if you were nothing. Although they say it’s supposed to be “respectful”, you will feel like dirt. The people who are “safe” will gather around and watch for “victims”.
The real truth is slowly getting out about this process. Peacock and IV, hang your heads in shame.
These employees were the hardest working and had so much pride for their company. Peacock could have used a few less millions, maybe saved a few people from their demise. Brito bought a big fancy jet, he’s the biggest liar of them all. How many millions were spent on the Bud Light campaign, “drinkability”? It’s stupid and a waste of money - there was an ooportunity to have saved money to save jobs.

Do you people not get it? AB will be headquartered in New York City in a matter of 2 years. They don’t want to be here, they are not welcome here, and it is costly to come here. Get your severance while the severence is good. Moreover, when the company goes bankrupt, the lump sum pension goes away.

ccccc

What was the fire marshall hearing about?

I’ve said it before…St. Louis, should say goodbye to AB. Within five to no more than 10 years the southside facility will be proclaimed as another classic “loft” project if such is still the rage.

many jobs could of been saved totally agree with former budlight girl…it is ironic not one level of management has been let go in many departments, think of all the millions of $’s that could be saved and many many jobs! Baine Group wake-up!!! Harvard grads directing what!!! however, many jobs have been saved for the “good old boys” company has not changed, but the work a bees have been let go…go figure
dwntwn smarts- you are very ignorant,please there will be no cost saving to the end consumer…shafley should be the beer of choice, please support the local brewers

Personally, the way AB has treated their employees, especially the Brewery ones, Im not surprised about the way they are handling things. The Brewery Opertions employees are modern day slaves. Upper management is like a dictatorshiop who believes in managing by fear. The line supervisors have no lunch break. They have to eat when they can, and if that line is down, forget it! They expect the line supervisors to be available and on call 24 hours to come and “SAVE BEER” when necessary. I’m glad I left and have never looked back.

Stockholders, Stockholders, AB3

The fact that many people are missing is that, the decision was not made by any one person or family to sell AB to In-Bev. This was a decision made by large institutions who held a large majority of the shares. This decisoin was made because they believed this would make their clients the most money.

Years ago, when the AB board of directors made the decsion to go public they essentially lost all power on decison making. If the institutional managers decided that the board was not making the correct decisions, they would make sure it didn’t happen again.

Very unfortunate (to say the least) for all those involved in this matter individuals and communites alike. However, as stated by dwntown smarts ” the firm has been so fat and over employed for too long”. Unfortunately, this is problem many companies are realizing today.

Boy…the old mmt really had everyone fooled. Previous mmt flew by private jet and helicopter…Brito flies coach and ride Metrolink. He’s the bad guy?

The problem is that you can’t run a public company as if you are unaccountable and the previous mmt was…the board was a bunch of cronies rewarded with perks and distributorships for their kids. Case in point - of all of the people that could have run the company, the IVth was the best? Come on, be serious.

The folks at AB had it good…too good and it is tough when it ends but as we see with everything if it is too good to be true, then there is something wrong.

As people get laid off, previous mmt stays busy counting their money. If you want to blame anyone, blame the people really behind this (previous mmt.). If mmt would have kept the stock price up (by managing better…by cutting costs) this would have never happened.

Has any one noticed that the “fat” in middle to senior mgmt has been safe through out this whole screwed up mess? The big dogs got to leave with their paper, and the day to day workers get to leave with their papers but it’s the wrong color paper. What just happened here, we like green too. It seems that the folks on the front line are taking a beating and make the least money. It’s all about head count. We could help make out the list too, no really, include us. We won’t base it on the bands you fall in, we will call a spade a spade. Another great thing to see is all the closed doors all day. We want to play too! It’s nothing but a bunch of B.S. secrets and that really makes me sick! Back to the fat that hasn’t been slapped, how about this, Asst Supervisor, Supervisor, Sr Supervisor, Asst Mgr, Mgr, Senior Mgr, Asst Dir. Dir. Sr Dir. That’s 9 safe jobs, “for now” and wipe out 50 indians instead that make less combined than the 9 closed doors. And how about the safe VP’s. We have more VP’s than indians. Okay, any way, hows your evening going? I just wanted to call and say thanks for working countless hours making your company be the best that it can be. So much for that.
X-Bud

Any news on the state of Procurement at AB? They’re the only ones “saving” money rather than “spending” it. I wish only the best to those that didn’t get too caught up in working for the King of Beers, and actually did their best to structure sound business deals. Net120 is a joke and any vendor that accepts it, will make up for the cost somewhere else. My thoughts are with you all, Procurement.

Ex-TAQ: I had dinner last night with someone (27yrs) let go yesterday. He rattled off a long list of names, many who I knew when I worked over there. Unfortunately, they have chosen to retain almost all of the North side cronies, so they are still pretty top-heavy. I suspect that will change as they start out-sourcing more, and sell the parks. Sounds like about 50 people are hitting the street. The thing I don’t understand is that there were a number of people who approached the management and asked to be released (since they had other jobs or sources of income) but they were told that they would be retained (so someone else was laid off.) Ridiculous.

canthardlywait, Thanks for the info. I didn’t want to bother people until they were ready to talk. I knew one of the Sr. people left for NY, but, other than that, no idea how things were going. Cheers!

The old A-B is dead and buried. When I recieved my appointment e-mail to be given my fate, I had already heard from some in my department who had been “retained”. I was actually dreading the meeting at that point thinking that I too would be retained. When I walked into the conference room/office to meet with my Mgr. (not even my direct manager by the way) and HR Generalist I could not get a sense of what the outcome would be. My Manager (who had been recently promoted to VP)has the personality of dried dirt. When I was told that I would be “unretained” (not sure that is even word) I was relieved. It was truly the best thing that could have happened. The outplacement is not even close to what the so called brain trust 360 top executives will be getting, but it will be better than what the next group on the chopping block will get.

It is true that for the most part the people that were cut were some of the hardest working, loyal people at A-B. I’m not just saying that because I was one of them. The recent lay-offs were a chance for Management to pick off those who had caused problems or headaches for them by pointing out their weaknesses, or by standing up and actually giving a contrary opinion to their boss. Most of those manager’s who got their positions through family ties or sexual favors, who were not even remotley qualified are still employed, but the ones that made them successful, who recieved little or no praise or recognition are gone. Not going to be so easy to shine now without your fall guy, but guess they won’t have to worry about that for too much longer once our friend Brito throws them out too. Good luck finding a job or keeping one in the real world.

What hurts the most is that A-B was NOT doing poorly overall, they were in no way doing as bad as the Banking or Auto Industries. They were not facing overwhelming debt and where doing relatively well. The stakeholders (employee’s, vendors, community, etc.) were making money and putting it back into the community. They were not growing the market share fast enough, that was all. There were changes that needed to be made, they were top heavy in Mgmt. for one, there were ways to cut spending without using the slash n burn method. There were people who were committed to quality and believed in what A-B stood for, now its all gone.

I am one of the people left in the department. Funny how the older managers were let go and the new managers are generally all people under 30.

Most of the people over 45 were let go. A much younger and less experienced department is what is left. InBev will be surprised how little money this group with little experience will really save them.

Wonder when the lawsuits will start!!!

Great comment by Ex HR - my manager also had the personality of dried dirt. He never did a lick of work until the merger talks began. Funny how he managed to save himself.
Brito eventually will get younger workers who never knew the AB traditions and it will only be a job to them. It’s pretty common knowledge that Brito has made public comments that should get the company in trouble over age discrimination. Let the law suits begin. He also made comments to employees at a “town hall” meeting about getting rid of the Mexicans. He meant Modelo but all in all it was a pretty offensive remark.