Nothing much good ever came out of Belgium apart from beer, getting invaded and...oh some other stuff. The beer has turned InBev into a global drinks firm and it is now planning a hostile bid for Anheuser-Busch. It wants to turn Budweiser into a global brand, but I know I am not the only one thinking that the King of American Beers does not travel.
Do you ever drink Budweiser? I do really occasionally. When it is free and cold. There is no other reason to drink it. It has quite a clean neutral taste, which some might call watery, which I think might account for the fact it tastes of very little.
It's like Stella in that sense. I'm glad our affair with Stella is over. It doesn't taste that nice either.
InBev, which is already the world's largest brewer, said last night that it would launch a hostile bid for Anheuser-Busch after its $46bn bid was rejected as "financially inadequate".
I can't help thinking that this bid (and definitely this hostile bid) is not a smart move and will lead to some serious damage being done to InBev.
If it wins it says it will put Budweiser into new markets. "There is a big international opportunity for the Bud flagship brand. We have operations in 30 countries around the world, and that would be a great platform to develop that brand," Carlos Brito, InBev's chief executive has said.
Personally, I don't think that a lot of markets are going to accept it. When it comes to beer it often doesn't travel that well, which means that Inbev will spend tens of millions trying to achieve this "international opportunity" for the Bud brand without much success.
And it has form in this area having previously tried and failed to do it with other brands.
There is a piece in the New York Times today about how InBev tried a similar trick with Brazilian beer Brahma. Never heard of it so maybe they did not try here all that hard, but it tried to push this beer that apparently "evokes the beautiful bodies for which the country is famous" globally in 2005.
It didn't work, which is why most of us don't drink it and the brand has not really made it in many markets outside of Brazil in the way say that Mexican beer brand Corona has. Corona is owned by Grupo Modelo, which is 50% owned by Anheuser-Busch.
This could all be a moot point as the Americans don't want Budweiser to be owned by the Belgians. You can see their point. Little Belgium has problems even forming a government with the company split down the middle between the French speakers and the Dutch-speaking Flemish.
The Americans have a plan and it involves cost cutting, as all plans do, which could see marketing being hit as well as its Busch Gardens theme park business being sold. What a beer company was doing with a theme park is anyone's guess. I'm betting that won't travel either.
Gordon Macmillan
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