Wine Making Chicago
Wednesday, August 17th, 2011
Anheuser Busch Purchases Goose Island In Quest For World Domination
Goose Island, a Chicago based microbrewer, has been purchased out by megalithic beverage corporation Anheuser Busch, the company that makes the Budweiser family of drinks. Anheuser has been buying stakes in microbreweries for years. The chief rivals of the Budweiser brands, SAB Miller and Molson Coors, have been doing likewise. Curmudgeons contend macrobrewers are attempting to kill any freedom that everyone has in choosing their beer of choice.
Buying a microbrewery for the macrobrewing company
USA Today reports the Goose Island brewery in Chicago is being bought by the Budweiser beer bank macrobrewing family, Anheuser-Busch, for $38 million. Anheuser already has a distribution partnership with Fulton Street Brewery, the business which makes Goose Island beers, and the purchase essentially moves the Goose Island line in-house for the brewing giant. Right away, 52 percent of Goose Island’s shares were bought by Anheuser. Craft Brewers Alliance sold the other 42 percent off. Craft Brewers Alliance Inc. is a conglomerate of smaller brew houses formed by the merger of Redhook and Widmer Brothers in 2008 that has since acquired other breweries, in accordance with BizJournals. Anheuser-Busch, which was acquired several years ago by global beverage titan InBev, owns 32.5 percent of Craft Brewers Alliance Inc.
The really big businesses get distribution choice
In order to be able to distribute more beer right now, Goose Island has sold control to Anheuser, reports the Chicago Sun Times. This isn’t uncommon, as it is not often advertised to the public that brewers, distillers and vintners all depend on distribution businesses to sell the beer, wine and spirits they produce to bars, restaurants and stores. In order to keep up with demand, because law mandates the distribution system, small companies such as Goose Island will often sell themselves to companies such as Anheuser Busch/InBev, SABMiller and Molson-Coors that have controlling interests in distribution. About 5 percent of beer sells came from microbrewers in 2009, reports Reuters.
Congress tries to help small brewers
An excise tax could very well be added to the first 60,000 barrels of beer produced with the Brewer’s Employment and Excise Relief Act cutting supply by half. This is a bill the U.S. Senate in the U.S. is looking at. Breweries that make less than six million barrels a year would not have to pay as much of an excise tax. While producing beer, the first 60,000 barrels have a $7 excise tax currently. It jumps to $18 a barrel if more than that is made. Craft breweries, not corporate ones, would end up paying only $16 a barrel with the new law as long as they stay under six million barrels a year. The House of Representatives will be seeing another version soon. A bill of this sort would help to lower the price of craft beer, making it easier for those who enjoy craft brewed beer to do so.
Articles cited
USA Today
usatoday.com/money/industries/food/2011-03-28-anheuser-busch-goose-island.htm
Chicago Sun Times
newssun.suntimes.com/business/4552383-420/goose-island-brewery-sold-to-anheuser-busch.html
Biz journals
bizjournals.com/portland/news/2011/03/28/craft-brewers-sells-goose-island-stake.html
Reuters
reuters.com/article/2011/03/19/us-breweries-idUSTRE72I3E620110319?pageNumber=1
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