ABinbev
Question 1 ANHESUSER BUSCH INBEV (Abinbev) w did the various mergers and acquisitions by AB InBev change the way Belgian beer was brewed? Constant Merger and acquisition has allowed of what we know of today as ABInBev to have great market share, large customer base and comprehensive brand portfolio. All these factors have allowed the firm to achieve an annual sum of over $ 27.4 billion dollars. However the firm reaching such heights along with constant merger and acquisitions has led to mixed reviews and changing perceptions from the people of its home country. Below are the possible reasons behind peoples change in perception: 1) After the acquisition of Brazil Ambev which led to the formation of ABInBEv there was organizational restructure and intake of Brazilian executives whose main concern was cost cutting and shifting focus on emerging and growing markets. 2) This led to two things. One is that slowly the firm started to move away focus from its home country so it can concentrate more on emerging markets and thus increase its dominance as the worldwide leader in the Beer industry. More over it tried to reduce it labor force in Belgium, however it was stopped and postponed due to the actions of the labor union. These actions to an extent can be justified as firstly it can afford to reduce it focus on the Belgium market as it only represents 1.6 percent of the firm’s total sale and secondly in the last decade there has been a decline of 19 percent in the countries per capita beer consumption. However cutting jobs even though the firm earning profits of over $ 3 billion was not understood and thus set psychological reactions in motion as people perceptions changed of the firm. Psychological Reactions and new perceptions: 1) Many Bars and Drinker decided they didn’t want to have the Stella Artios one of the firms leading beer in Europe. This led to sales level being down 30% in January thus a clear
References: Anheuser Busch Inbev Web site, www.ab-inbev.com, Haacht Brewery Web side, www.haact.com “Big Beer Gets Belgian Emotion” The wall street Journal February 23 ,2010