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Major Mergers and acquisitions in the brewing world in the last couple of decades are decidedly Atlanto-centric. I expect this picture to shift eastward as China makes inroads into the brewing market.
Over the past few decades, the macrobrewing industry has been punctuated by merger after merger, forming huge brewing conglomerates.
For many of you it's like a family tree of people you don't care about, but for beer genealogy geeks, it will make sense.
In 1987, Artois Brewery (makers of Stella Artois), with roots dating back to 1355, merged with another Belgian brewing company to form Interbrew. Early in the next decade, through several European acquisitions, Interbrew had became the fourth largest brewing company in the world.
In 1995, Interbrew acquired the slighter smaller Canadian brewing company Labatt, which came with some non-brewing bonuses, including the Toronto Blue Jays and Toronto Argonauts.
By 2001, Interbrew was the third largest brewing company in the world.
In 2004, Interbrew merged with Brazilian brewer AmBev (Bohemia beer) to form InBev and become the second largest brewing company in the world. But, InBev's US$52 billion purchase of Anheuser Busch in 2008 resulted in the frankenstein that is now the largest brewing company in the world: Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev).
Pre-merger, Anheuser-Busch Brewing Company was an American institution with roots dating back to 1852 in St. Louis, Missouri.
The newly formed corporation didn't see Duffland potential in the merger (you know, the Duff beer amusement park from the Simpsons). After swallowing Anheuser-Busch, the new company sold the 10 theme parks that came with the deal.
If you drink beer, chances are you have tasted an AB InBev product.
AB Inbev captures 25 per cent of the global market, with its headquarters in St. Louis, Missouri and Leuven, Belgium. Some of its more-than-300 beers include Budweiser, Michelob, Becks, Corona, Alexander Keith's, Hoegaarden, and Stella Artois.
Today, half of the world's beer is made by only four brewing companies. They are, in decreasing order of size: Anheuser-Busch InBev, SAB Miller, Heineken International, and Carlsberg Group.
Heineken is, surprisingly, still family-controlled. Carlsberg (the makers of Tuborg) is Danish and owned by the Carlsberg Foundation.
SABMiller formed from the merger of SAB (South African Breweries) and Miller Brewing Co., in 2002. SAB's origins date back to 1895 in Johannesburg, where it was served to the miners and prospectors working in South Africa.
Miller Brewing Company was founded in 1855, in Milwaukee, Wisconson, U.S.A. by Frederick Miller – who apparently carried the yeast for his beer in his pocket when he emigrated to the Untited States.
Experts speculate that the next big merger will be between AB InBev and SABMiller with an estimated price tag of US$100 billion for AB InBev's acquisition of SABMiller.
Pure speculation, but if this happens, it would be the fifth-largest corporate acquisition ever. Unfortunately, all this conglomeration doesn't make the beer any better.
This will be my last Seeking Beervana article. Thank you to all my readers over the past two years.