Anheuser-Busch, MillerCoors executives dish on the changing beer industry; “Things are more up for grabs”
What is the future of the U.S. beer industry? Who has the upper hand? And do changes at Anheuser-Busch open the door for competitors? Well, why don’t we ask Anheuser-Busch AND its top competitor? As the Guinness guys say…brilliant!
Anheuser-Busch president Dave Peacock gave a wide-ranging interviewing recently to Michael Bellas of Beverage Marketing Corp. at a New York conference. It makes for interesting reading, especially in regard to changes - or non-changes - at Anheuser-Busch as new owner InBev makes its presence felt.
Beer Business Daily reported on the conversation. We quote:
One observation Bellas made was that A-B seemed to be focused on profits now more than market share, a notion that Dave seemed to bristle at: “We have a market share meeting every week….It’s the foundation for making money and getting scale,” he said.
We’re not surprised Peacock would take issue with folks who suggest that A-B would be okay with trading away some of its market share for bigger profits. Controlling about half of the U.S. beer market and fighting rivals for every tap handle and inch of shelf space has long been entwined in Anheuser-Busch’s corporate DNA. (Just as InBev’s reputation has been built on cutting costs.)
Here’s another reason A-B might be feeling a bit tetchy: its chief U.S. rival, MillerCoors, is publicly licking its chops at the possibility of grabbing market share. Tom Long, president and chief commercial officer at Chicago-based MillerCoors, made some eye-raising comments to that effect at the New York forum.
Long said “it’s clear that a fundamental reset is happening in the beverage industry, particularly here in America,” according to Beer Business Daily. “Things are more up for grabs than they’ve ever been.”
Why? According to Long, Anheuser-Busch’s “once unstoppable momentum has been disrupted” by factors such as the steady growth of craft beer and what he called the “rejuvenation” of Miller and Coors.
Long said MillerCoors senses an opportunity to “change the basics of competition,” and for “big market share swings.” (Quotes from trade publication Insights Express.)
Very interesting indeed. Will MillerCoors be able to deliver on the bravado? We’ll know soon enough. Anheuser-Busch is unlikely to cede anything easily to MillerCoors - even a “rejuvenated” MillerCoors.
Our question is: What will happen at Anheuser-Busch if chasing market share (with more marketing, more sales reps with “boots on the ground,” etc.) runs into conflict with the goal of boosting profits? The two goals are not mutually exclusive, but neither are they necessarily the same. Will one have to give way? Something to ponder. We return to the article:
Dave also talked about how A-B has simplified processes and reduced paper reports, which they “have shrunk that down considerably and have gone paperless.” Dave said the new A-B won’t get distracted with “ancillary data” and are “focusing hard” on the areas consumers are willing to pay for. Dave also said that InBev has taught them to be more of an “answer seeking” company rather than always demonstrating that you have all the answers. “That’s a different mentality for us.”
As we’ve said before, we really want to know whether the exchange of “best practices” is a two-way street, rather than simply a case of InBev dictating terms to its latest acquisition. Anheuser-Busch brewmasters say some of their new technology is getting picked up at InBev’s far-flung breweries, which is an interesting sign. Whether it represents a trend or a departure from the norm at the new Anheuser-Busch InBev is still up for debate.
(2 votes, average: 5 out of 5)
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Jeremiah McWilliams is a native Virginian who came to the Post-Dispatch in early 2007 to cover beer and other consumer products. He previously covered manufacturing for the Virginian-Pilot newspaper in Norfolk, Va. He is a graduate of Washington and Lee University. 
Here are the FACTS!! A/B is owned by INBEV. Miller Coors is a joint venture between SAB(South Africa) and Molson(Canada). However, the South Africans have the CONTROLLING interest in Miller Coors and are CLEARLY running the show. SAB is also known for its cost cutting, but more importantly their LOW INTEGRITY. Coors beer, long known for its colorado tradition is now being made in Milwaukee, Los Angeles and Georgia…..don’t let the mountains on the can fool you. The Coors family is only involved via their celebrity status. Oh, by the way, Leinekugel is owned by Miller and most of it is brewed in Milwaukee with their skunky water.
A/B and Coors were both sold out by greedy families and the countries will be controlled forever by international greed and self interest. St. Louis and Golden, Colorado will NEVER, EVER be the same. So sad for employees, retirees, and the communities.
look, if A-b indebt would have been better at managing people. look you dont cut people that have 25-30 years with a company that are told what they do then fill the same job with a new hire or someone that is tight with peacock,bricky, hoffman within 45 days at about 40% pay.
folks bricky should be human resource, not people, but hey that is probably what they call it in brazil. at the lake this weekend by tan-tar-in a quik stop place , there was a sign with a hand drawn red circle with a line through it on a bud light display. clearly drawn by a customer….the funny thing was that display hardly had any cases of beer taken from it however the miller and pbr were down to only a couple of cases left. two establishments that i went to last night both said that a-b sales for the weekend are down.
when brito gets rid of the trashy dont know anything mid managers they keep, keep the people that do the work now, bring back the people that made a differance that had there credit for ideas and work stolen to further a non workering mid managment person that is more worried about how people are aloud to dress for work now. and apologize for there bulling ways with the employees/city of st.louis, etc. brito not being able to open his mouth because god knows he could not tell the truth if he had to. then and only then will A-B get any respect out side of there corp offices.
the slow death of an american icon, how sad.
oh one last thing grants farm is owned by billy busch( gussie willed it to him.) with things writen in about what the brewery MUST PROVIDE FOR, that cannot be refutted by the brewery regardless of the sale or not. its not going anywere soon.
yes miller is also owned by non american company, however that company was more civilized with there buyout, and they respected there new employees.
brito, your comment about ” we bought A-B, we will not learn anything from them. they will learn from us.” really turned out to be true…. we learned how NOT TO RUN A COMPANY, AND HOW NOT TO TREAT VENDORS OR EMPLOYEES.
Holy Moly:
Man, your post was hard to read! Maybe you don’t think grammar/spelling matter, but it definitely detracts from your credibility.
Also- Isn’t Grant’s Farm owned by Andrew Busch? (I know there are a lot of Busch offspring running around, but…) I think Billie Busch owns one of the distributors in TX or FL or something…
grants farm is billy bucsh, peter busch and sue busch own dist. in ok. and fl.
wow:
I’m not sure who Billy Bucsh is, but he doesn’t own Grants Farm according to this Biz Journal article from last summer.
…unless Mr. Bucsh bought the farm from Andrew Busch since that time.
http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/stories/2008/06/23/story7.html
News Flash: Most folks in the US really do not care about what you folks are yelling about here. Infact I would say that at least 99% do not even know who Inbev or SAB are. So go ahead yak it up, because really no one is listening and if by chance they are they really do not care.
“Why don’t you call these men what they are drug dealers and murders. Over 100,000 deaths are caused by alcohol in the United States a year and these poor excuses for men are seeking a larger market share for their plague. We need to control alcohol much more closely than these men want. We need to arrest these men for bribery and see to that they spend time in prison with the men they sent there for money.
— michael Mullarkey
1:13 pm May 22nd, 2009″
I was driving one day and got hit by an illegal still going thru rehab. LUCKY to be alive. So who can I blame for that. Can I blame a drug dealer because he was Mexican or should I blame the our government because they will not protect OUR homeland.