The Not-So Latest News from Belgium
Friday, November 21, 2008A few links to mark the Belgian-Brazilian company InBev completing its purchase of Anheuser-Busch earlier this week, letting the local media provide the reaction.
- St. Louis Post-Dispatch, “It’s official. Anheuser-Busch is no more“
- St. Louis Post-Dispatch, “InBev buys Anheuser-Busch. Now what?”
- St. Louis Post-Dispatch, “Beer distributors encounter a new world“
- The Nashua (N.H.) Telegraph, “Anheuser-Busch deal worth toasting“
The latter is indeed a local InBev/AB story because there’s a brewery in Merrimack, where a labor agreement has been reached. From The Telegraph:
Certainly, the creation of what will become the largest brewer in the world – one that will control about 25 percent of the international beer market – is a big story in the global business press, as well it should be.
But that was a distant second around here to more pressing matters: like whether the 500 workers at the Merrimack plant would be able to keep their jobs, their homes, their livelihoods.
For now, at least, that question appears to have been answered.
As “positive” “economic” “news” goes, that’s about as good as it gets these days.
And another toast…NAM President John Engler spoke in Belgium this October at a conference sponsored by VoKa, the Flemish Chamber of Commerce. With respect to the then-pending purchase, he said:
I know we’ve got a royal family in Belgium, but America was born a democracy, and so the only royalty we’ve had has been “Budweiser - the King of Beers!” Well, at the NAM, I thought it was appropriate to come here and to wish the Royal House of InBev-Anheuser-Bush and long and happy life, full of global sales records and great success in the 2010 World Cup sponsorship in South Africa.
Like most pressing business decisions, this purchase really focused on Western NY. http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN1444450020081114