Are prospective buyers visiting Anheuser-Busch’s packaging division?
Dear Lager Heads readers: Please consider this as much a request for help as a news story. We have picked up rumors that visitors from competing companies have been visiting Anheuser-Busch’s packaging operations recently. Recall that those packaging operations - which make one of four aluminum beverage cans in the U.S. - were widely thought to be potential divestitures when InBev bought Anheuser-Busch six months ago.
We have heard that folks from one competing packaging company visited Anheuser-Busch’s packaging operations recently, carrying folders emblazoned with their logo and not making much of an effort to hide their affiliation. We are told that visits have been pre-announced on an internal website at A-B’s Metal Container Corp., which manufactures beverage cans at eight plants and beverage can lids at three plants.
Are the visitors potential buyers? And if so, how serious are they? That is harder to ascertain. Some key competitors of A-B’s packaging group include Ball Corp., Rexam Corp. and Crown Holdings. Anheuser-Busch InBev declined to comment.
We wanted to ask that anyone with information about what is going on at A-B’s packaging division contact us (you can send us an e-mail at jmcwilliams@post-dispatch.com). We’d be interested in any inside scoop. You don’t have to be identified in a story or blog post. Thanks!
Anheuser-Busch’s packaging division attracts little fanfare compared to the company’s beer making operations and theme parks (Busch Gardens, SeaWorld, etc.). But owning its own packaging operations has been a key part of Anheuser-Busch’s strategy for some time.
According to A-B’s 2007 annual report, “packaging operations provide significant efficiencies, cost savings and quality assurance for U.S. beer operations.” Furthermore, the packaging segment contributed strong earnings growth in 2007. Packaging contributed 10 percent of A-B’s sales and 4 percent of its profits in 2007.
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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. 
Too bad all those comments are from the 2007 report and not the most recent update from the insightful few at InBev. Better sit down for this…every asset is for sale to pay down the burden of debt that exsists. Like you and I, you sell what is most valuable and not needed first…hence, MCC and BEC. A-B justified making their own cans the same way they justified how animals and roller coasters sell beer. Good thing Eagle Snacks and Campbell-Taggart got out when the getting out was good! Hello Beverage Group. MCC and BEC left the building when AABIII boarded his helicopter departing 1 Busch Place for the final time.
How can having someone else make your cans be more cost effective?
Well I work at MCC in Arnold, and Yes there were several ”tours” throughout the last few weeks. We were given no information on Who they were, although rumor was that it was Ball, Crown, and a company from Poland, the only major can operation there would be Can-Pack SA. I am only an hourly peon there, so My information may not that reliable. The only thing I can tell You is that We in the hourly ranks can’t wait the company to be sold! Brito will run our operation into the ground. It’d be nice to work for an outfit that knows how to, and wants to run a container operation.
tours today………at MCC Colunbus..
SouthernBelle…economies of scale and commodity prices for aluminum are the two reasons why having some else make your cans be cheaper. AB was actually paying more for their cans than those made for Pepsi due to a contract price that didn’t antisipate high aluminum prices. If I make cans for Coke, Pepsi and Budweiser I can sell them for less than those guys making just enough for themselves. Profit goals and corporate structure would also have an impact. Bet it is cheaper for AB to make beer for a micro than the micro could for itself. Same reason.
Thanks folks for your comments. i appreciate them. I was onyl able to find 2007 numbers, since the full-year 2008 numbers would be included in Anheuser-Busch InBev’s results. ABI’s annual report does not get as specific as Anheuser-Busch’s did.
when you are owned by bankers you will always be for sale