Anheuser-Busch to Buy Rolling Rock Brand

BDx13 - 5-19-2006 at 05:15 PM

now, i don't consume beverages by either of these of these companies, but i think this news is crap. 1. i'm a traditionalist. if rolling rock has always come from latrobe, then it always should. 2. 'make rolling rock brands available to more consumers'? hello? where can't you buy rolling rock? (ok, maybe they're talking international distribution...)

Anheuser-Busch to Buy Rolling Rock Brand
By JIM SALTER, AP Business Writer 15 minutes ago

ST. LOUIS - Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc., citing consumers' need for variety in beer, said Friday it will pay $82 million to purchase the Rolling Rock beer brand from InBev USA, the U.S. subsidiary of Belgian-Brazilian brewer InBev SA.

The company, the nation's largest brewer, said it will begin producing Rolling Rock and Rock Green Light in August at its Newark, N.J., facility, one of 12 Anheuser-Busch breweries across the country. The plant where the beer has historically been brewed, in Latrobe, Pa., and which employs more than 200, will be sold, InBev USA said.

The deal will allow Rolling Rock brands to be made available to more consumers, St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch said.

"We have an ideal opportunity to grow this historic brand," Anheuser-Busch president August A. Busch IV said. "This beer is not like others, and its consumer following is equally distinctive.

"We live in a diverse world where consumers are hungry for variety," Busch said. "Acquiring Rolling Rock enables us to reach a new audience and to continue building our broad portfolio of products that meet the wide-ranging needs of consumers."

Ben Steinman, editor of the industry publication Beer Marketer's Insights, said the purchase is part of Anheuser-Busch's growing effort to diversify its product line.

In February, the brewery signed a deal to be the sole U.S. distributor of Grolsch, a high-end European import. At the time, Busch said the company was looking to add more import beers to its portfolio.

"A-B was something of a monolith ? they had these megabrands, Bud and Bud Light, and serviced the needs of a great number of drinkers," Steinman said. "What's been happening in the last several years is drinkers crave more variety and more choice. What you're seeing is A-B trying to get after this."

InBev USA, based in Norwalk, Conn., said it will sell the Latrobe brewery and focus its U.S. business on its imported beers, which include Stella Artois and Beck's. The company is in talks with potential buyers.

"The decision to sell the Rolling Rock brands was based on InBev's strategic approach to the U.S. market, which is to focus on the high-growth import brands in our portfolio," said Doug Corbett, president of InBev USA.

Rolling Rock was introduced in 1939 by Latrobe Brewing Co. It was acquired by InBev's Labatt U.S.A. in 1987.

The sale has imperiled the jobs of the workers at the Latrobe brewery, which has operated for more than a century and has become a local and regional fixture.

Scores of unionized workers from the brewery gathered Friday at a hotel to pick up severance information.

"They're claiming we're going to stay open two and-a-half months," Joe Mulheren, a union steward, told Pittsburgh's WTAE-TV. "If we don't get a buyer in two and-a-half months, we'll be done July 31st."

A closure could significantly affect the local economy as the brewery is among Latrobe's top sources of real estate tax and one of its biggest buyers of water.

Ed Dobies, who has worked at the brewery for 42 years, said that "taking Rolling Rock out of Latrobe doesn't sit right with me."

Anheuser-Busch said it will maintain Rolling Rock's and Rock Green Light's recipes, and will continue to sell the beers in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

Shares of Anheuser-Busch fell 6 cents to close at $46.13 on the New York Stock Exchange.

defstarsteve - 5-19-2006 at 07:03 PM

this is one of the problem with modern society

if the competition is too stiff and you can't beat them...buy them out
and ruin the brand

they did the same thing with shiner from texas
one nation under one multi-national corporate god

BDx13 - 5-19-2006 at 08:25 PM

no wonder bud tastes like shit...it's brewed in newark!

clevohardcore - 5-19-2006 at 08:47 PM

they both suck.

Spoiler - 5-19-2006 at 10:02 PM

I like Rolling Rock....but I'm now addicted to Yeungling.
Fuck Bud,bud light,bud ice,bud this,bud that and the other thing....I aint never liked that shit.

JawnDiablo - 5-20-2006 at 10:46 AM

i ususally stick to yuengling, but at times i do the rolling rocks
i never drink bud...phoey

Voodoobillyman - 5-20-2006 at 11:04 AM

Fuck all y'all I love Budweiser, it's the king of beers.

Voodoobillyman - 5-20-2006 at 11:06 AM

I also love me some Miller High life light, the regular shit has a wierd aftertaste. And for the record I love rockabilly/psychobilly but fucking HATE pabst Blue Ribbon!!!! I used to buy the tall boys in the bars back home for a buck a shot and the reason was it was a cheap drunk. When did drinking your grandads cheap ass piss become fuckin trendy??? Buncha fuckin douchebags emulating again.

JawnDiablo - 5-20-2006 at 11:16 AM

i still dont understand the PBR trend. '
my dad drank that stuff when i was a real little kid. that and genese cream ale.
i used to drink schaeffer though...

DAK - 5-20-2006 at 02:49 PM

Pabst
Smear

Spoiler - 5-20-2006 at 04:39 PM

I like PBR....and I was drinking it long before it became "trendy",hell,a few years ago you couldn't even find it in bars around here...now the shits every where.

crazyfists28 - 5-20-2006 at 05:33 PM

holy shit, im drinking pabst right now, and genny cream ale is my second favorite. i suddenly feel cool for drinking the cheapest beers out there. and for the record bud light is ok for a light beer, and bud ice was fun when i was in high school

Voodoobillyman - 5-20-2006 at 10:42 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by crazyfists28
holy shit, im drinking pabst right now, and genny cream ale is my second favorite. i suddenly feel cool for drinking the cheapest beers out there. and for the record bud light is ok for a light beer, and bud ice was fun when i was in high school

FUCK YEAH!!!!!!! Bud Ice would get your crunk fo shizzle!!!!!!!

Voodoobillyman - 5-20-2006 at 10:47 PM

PBR is the trendiest crap out there right now. I see fucks choking it down because the Honky tonk (only OLD country is cool) crowd and the rockabilly/psycho fucks see the people that they bit on when they were still diggin bands like Everytime I die before that shit got old. I fuckin hate that piss swill I hated it years ago when I was drinking it for the right reasons..................it was fuckin cheap!!!!!!! It's not even that cheap anymore, they have caught on assclowns, they know you have made their product trendy and have begun raising the prices. Are you still going to drink it when it is the same price as the high dollar domestics ruling the market now?? It's fuckin rotgut for a reason, it's fuckin cheap for a reason, you numbskull mutherfuckers!!!!!!!!!!! I should be posting an I hate PBR trendy shitheads thread on the hate boards........fuckers!

crazyfists28 - 5-21-2006 at 05:25 PM

...ummm, i just drink really cheap beer, and this one has enough bite for me, i don't care what is trendy and cool, nobody told me to try it, i never saw anyone drink it. i drink shit beer and really enjoy it. i 'll never buy those ridiculously high priced euro beers, i drink genny, pabst, miller, bud, pretty standard fare. but pabst seems pretty ok to me

BDx13 - 5-21-2006 at 05:40 PM

cheap and good beer = Yuengling. also, Ballantine Ale.

JawnDiablo - 5-21-2006 at 05:46 PM

yuengling chesterfield ale is probably my favorite beers..funny how noone seems to like it but me, and ive never seen it in a bar anywhere.

CR83 - 5-22-2006 at 09:17 AM

I live in STL and AB owns this town along with the Cardinals. Not sure if he still does but August Busch the 4th used to troll the bars and pick up on young chicks. He's a total d-bag.

I LOVE Busch Beer though. I'm so torn.

Voodoobillyman - 5-22-2006 at 10:11 AM

whos been to beer school at Busch gardens, that shit rocks, just keep going back all day and you can cop a buzz without pating extra for beer.