Free beer continues at Anheuser-Busch; What does Brito think?
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It’s a perk that certain Post-Dispatch writers (not naming any names here) would LOVE to have: A couple of free cases of beer from their employer. Every month, like clockwork.
Free beer has been a part of the job at Anheuser-Busch for as long as anybody can remember. But when InBev swooped in and took control of the company last year, wags predicted that the benefit would soon fall victim of cost-cutting. They wondered: How long before the suds go dry?
Well, it ain’t happened yet. Lager Heads recently did a little investigative journalism - which will win a major award if there’s any justice in this world - and confirmed that the free beer program IS still going at Anheuser-Busch. Maybe it has escaped the notice of the folks planning budgets. Or maybe the budget folks like free beer as much as the rest of us.
Either way, this little oasis of employee appreciation continues in these troubled times. It warms our (admittedly skeptical) heart.
The little perk gives a sense of Anheuser-Busch’s massive scale. Let’s assume that the roughly 4,400 A-B employees in St. Louis take advantage of the offer every month for a year. That’s about 106,000 cases of beer given out in one year. Just for comparision, the guys at Schlafly would have had to work for about four months last year to churn out that much beer. Impressive.
We got to thinking: Wonder what Carlos Brito, the ultra-focused chief executive of Anheuser-Busch InBev, thinks about such perks. Wish we could ask him. (Wait, what’s that? Somebody already did ask him?) Let’s roll the tape.
A Reuters story finds Brito giving a speech to Stanford MBA students shortly before he launched a takeover bid for Anheuser-Busch last year:
The man who would be King of Beers is a no-frills leader without a company car or even his own desk.
Carlos Brito, chief executive of brewer InBev SA, says he doesn’t care for perks - and neither should the people who work for him.
“I don’t want the company to give me free beer; I can buy my own beer,” [he said.]
Two words: Uh oh. Get them suds while y’all can!
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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. 
my understanding is that the free beer will stop at the end of the year for the office workers. The union workers will still get the free case because it was written into their contract. I guess it is a matter of waiting like everything else with Inbev to see what all they do
It’s my understanding the free beer is overstock and/or beer that would ultimately have to be destroyed anyway. Might as well give it away as destroy it, especially if it makes you look good.
overstock?? very incorrect.
Doubt this will end anytime soon, it is a very inexpensive perk…..heck the discount at Best Buy/Macy/s/Dillards etc works out to be better.
There is no such thing as overstock at the brewery. Everything that’s made is shipped out within 24hrs, normally. The beer they give away is “fresh” beer.
1 packaging line can produce over 100,000 cases in less than 2 days. The St. Louis brewery alone has 11 packaging lines. There are 10 other brewery’s around the country.
The free beer is a drop in the bucket, but based on InBev’s way of doing business, it’s probably going away, eventually.
jc, why is this your understanding? Do you have some evidence of your ‘understanding’, or are you passing on a rumor? Please enlighten us.
dc, It’s not overstock. You’ve never known anyone who worked at the brewery and brought home beer if you think it’s overstock. Again with the rumors that have no basis.
Jeremiah - it may very well have escaped notice. I’m sure all those people taking home free beer are thankful to you for having pointed it out.
Brito is probably on the Bat phone to St. Louis now, screaming “Não há mais cerveja grátis!”
the union is still receiving the beer - it is in their contract. As far as the “safety” beer that employees used to get, they no longer get it. that was a perk employees got for having no accidents. If someone got hurt, EVERYONE lost their beer. A very inconsequential price to pay when compared to workman’s comp payments. Since they no longer offer it workman’s comp claims have skyrocketed.
Why would the editors allow him to say “Well, it ain’t happened yet.”? The dumbing down of America continues unabated.
Hey stlexpatriate, don’t blame editors for anything that appears on Lager Heads. This stuff is all me, for better or worse. And if you think redneck writin’ is bad, you should really check out my use of the word “irregardless.” It’ll blow your mind. Thanks for reading.
b: Two people had already noted your brilliant overstock revelation, but thanks.
Jeremiah: Good response to the grammar police, I wish they’d stay off the blogs and in the papers where they belong.
b
That is what i was told by someone who still works there and has direct contact with the department that deals with the vouchers for the free beer.