Beer analyst says Anheuser Busch went off rails when last family member - August Anheuser Busch III

[mystery-ak]

Beer analyst says Anheuser Busch went off rails when last family member - August Anheuser Busch III - retired and focus went from humor and sport to Miami art fair and Dylan Mulvaney

    Anheuser Busch suffered after parting with its founding dynasty, a beer analyst has claimed
    Harry Schumacher said the iconic brand lost touch after shifting focus from sports and humor to sponsoring art fairs
    It comes after the beer giant lost over $6 billion in the aftermath of its infamous Dylan Mulvaney marketing campaign

By Will Potter For Dailymail.Com

Published: 13:32 EDT, 11 May 2023 | Updated: 14:07 EDT, 11 May 2023

A beer analyst has pinpointed the moment that Anheuser-Busch began its billion-dollar decline, slamming the iconic brand's shift away from sport and humor after its founding dynasty lost control of the company.

Harry Schuhmacher, a 30-year veteran of the beer business and podcast host, said the brewery was doomed as soon as family patriarch - August Anheuser Busch III - retired from the company in 2006.

'I always looked up to and feared Anheuser Busch,' Schuhmacher said. 'They were the most respected, they knew the market better than anybody... August III knew that sports and humor were the way to get in.'

The company has made a series of marketing blunders in recent times, with Schuhmacher pointing to Anheuser Busch's involvement in ritzy art fair Art Basel Miami Beach as a prime example of it losing touch.

He said: 'It doesn't have to be NFL Football, I get it. But not Art Basel in Miami...'

The firm displayed limited edition cans created for its brand Michelob at the snooty event earlier this year, PRNewswire reported. 

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https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12073415/Beer-analyst-says-rot-Anheuser-Busch-started-family-member-left-focus-shifted.html

[Smokin Joe]

While Busch's old leadership saw the brand roll out hilarious adverts and focus on fan-friendly sports marketing, a new executive lineup has since reversed course.

Well, leftists don't have a sense of humor, only one of snark, and that only gets you so far.

[DefiantMassRINO]

Budwesier is owned by a multi-national Belgian conglomerate, Am Bev.

 

Belgians are bastard love children of the French and the Dutch.  They are on a planet all their own.

[mountaineer]

Interesting story about August A. Busch III and his ne'er-do-well druggie son August A. IV from NBC News:

... The company had been run by Busch’s family for 150 years until it was devoured by the Belgian-Brazilian conglomerate InBev in 2008 in a $52 billion hostile takeover.  ...

“It had elements of a Greek tragedy: a very controlling father and a son who probably would have been a good head of marketing but didn’t have the skill set to be CEO,” says Stirling. Amid growing tension with his father and the company’s worsening prospects, August IV began to disappear for long stretches.

That spring, rumors of a possible bid for Anheuser-Busch by InBev, with which it had a distribution agreement, intensified. Busch was horrified. He told the company’s wholesale distributors at their annual conference in April that a sale of Anheuser-Busch would not happen “on my watch.” In May, Busch spoke to Anheuser-Busch distributors at a national beer wholesalers’ meeting in Washington. Within a few minutes it was obvious something was not right, says Harry Schuhmacher, publisher of Business Beer Daily. On stage, Busch slurred his words and dropped his microphone. Executives said he had taken strong cold medication.

A month later, InBev made an unsolicited bid of $65 a share. The stock had been trading in the high fifties, and Busch (IV) was put into the most difficult situation of his career.  ...

InBev soon had two surprising supporters among the Busch family: August III and his half-brother, Adolphus, who had been angered by the Third’s power grab some 35 years earlier. ...

August III’s apparent enthusiasm about selling the company was more puzzling. He had devoted his entire working life to ensuring Anheuser-Busch’s independence, even from those in the industry he probably should have cooperated with more closely. “It’s hard to imagine him giving up the company,” says Reisinger. “But it would appear that he saw the train wreck coming and got out of the way.”

When InBev increased its all-cash offer to $70 a share, the board immediately accepted.  ...