The world’ biggest brewer is trying to stay at the top spot! Anheuser-Busch InBev has been the top dog for beer for the past few years, with its flagship beers in the United States, Budweiser and Bud Light, ranking as the most common across the nation.
However, “most common beer” is meaning less and less and more and more consumers have been moving to craft beers and microbrews, made by a wide range of smaller brewers, which has been very quickly eroding InBev’s total market share.
Their solution has been acquisitions, buying up some of the most popular micro-brewers in the US to satisfy the consumer demand for artisanal beers without eroding their own market dominance. Some companies, like Goose Island in Chicago and Elysian Brewing in Seattle, hesitated before the purchases but have been mostly happy moving forward. The previous owners, and master brewers, have been happy with the approach, which they claim has allowed them to reach wider markets without any pressure to compromise techniques or ingredients.
Only time will tell if this strategy of “buy up then hands off” will continue, but beer drinkers everywhere are watching carefully.
Black-Scholes
