Anheuser Busch

Anheuser Busch is a wholly owned subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch InBev since 2008 when it merged with InBev. It is the leading global brewer and continues to operate under the Anheuser-Busch name and logo.

Anheuser Busch is based in St. Louis USA and operates 12 breweries across the states. The company commands almost half of all American beer sales (48.5%) and owns some of the top selling global beer brands including Budweiser beer. The firm also owns half of Grupo Modelo, Mexico’s leading brewer. In 2008 the firm took first place in FORTUNE Magazine's most admired global and American companies. Anheuser Busch's business interests also include theme parks and aluminium can manufacturing and recycling.

History

The company was established in 1852 at the Bavarian Brewery in St. Louis, in 1960 Eberhard Anheuser, a soap manufacturer, bought the brewery. According to the company web site they becam the first brewery to use pasteurization, in 1870 and by the early 1880s refrigerated rail cars and rail side icehouses, allowing products to be widely distributed. Budweiser introduced in 1876 was the first National brand introduced to America. The firm survived the prohibition era (1920-1933) by selling soft drinks and ice cream.

Philanthropy

Anheuser Busch has a long history of philanthropy and charitable donations. The company is very proud of this aspect of their history which dates back to 1884 . The scale of the donations made by the companies foundation is extensive.

• National Social Norms Institute based at the University of Virginia was made possible by the company with a 2.5 million dollar donation. The institute researches how marketing techniques can create social norms and uses these techniques to try and prevent the harmful use of drugs and alcohol and to modify other risky behaviours. The 2.5 million awarded to the institute is part of the 7.7 million dollars Anheuser Busch spent in 2006 on social norms marketing programmes across American College campuses.

• Saint Louis University were awarded $3 million from the Anheuser Busch Foundation the largest donation for a $35 million expansion of the law department. This represented the largest single donation in the company history.

• In 2002 Anheuser matched $5 million of funds to help develop a new food science laboratory building in the developing Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science at the University of California. The laboratory will be named the Anheuser Busch Brewing and Food Science Laboratory.

Anheuser Busch Branded Drinking Water

• Providing drinking water to disaster victims has become a regular feature of the brewers philanthrophy , since 1988 the company has donated more than 59 million cans of drinking water to aid the victims of hurricanes and natural disasters. Critics have argued that the branding of this water is inappropriate and regard such action as a cynical marketing ploy. .

Board of Directors

• August A. Busch III Chairman of the Executive Committee, Joined board 1963
• August A. Busch IV President and Chief Executive Officer, Joined board 2006
• James Forese Former Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, Joined board 2003
• James Jones Former U.S. Ambassador to Mexico; Co-Chairman and Chief Executive Officer - Manatt Jones Global Strategies, LLC, a global consulting firm Joined board 1998
• Vernon R. Loucks, Jr Chairman of the Board - The Aethena Group, LLC, a health-care merchant banking firm Joined board 1988
• Vilma S. Martinez Partner - Munger, Tolles & Olson, attorneys Joined board 1983
• William Porter Payne Vice Chairman - Gleacher Partners, LLC, an investment banking and asset management firm Joined board 1997
• Joyce M. Roché President and Chief Executive Officer - Girls Incorporated, a nonprofit organization Joined board 1998
• Henry Hugh Shelton Former Chairman – Joint Chiefs of Staff Joined board 2001
• Patrick T. Stokes Chairman of the Board Joined board 2000
• Andrew C. Taylor Chairman and Chief Executive Officer – Enterprise Rent-A-Car Company;

an international car rental and related services company Joined board 1995

• Douglas A. Warner III Former Chairman of the Board - J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., an international commercial and investment banking firm Joined board 1992
• Edward E. Whitacre, Jr. Chairman Emeritus - AT & T Inc., a diversified telecommunications company Joined board 1988

Anheuser Busch Lobbyists

• Barbara Heffernan
• Daniel McCarthy
• Christopher Ross

External Lobbyists & Nature of Work Undertaken

• Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld Taxation and Internal Revenue Code
• Bryan Cave Animals, Beverage Industry, Consumer Issues Taxation & Internal Revenue Code
• Kevin G. Curtin Advertising, Beverage Industry, Telecommunications
• Federal Policy Group Taxation andInternal Revenue Code
• Gephardt Group Taxation/Internal Revenue Code
• The Hobbs Group Beverage Industry, Food Industry, Travel & Tourism
• OB-C Group Alcohol and Drug Abuse, Animals, Environmental Superfund, Trade (Foreign and Domestic)
• The Oliver Group Beverage Industry
• Public Strategies Washington Beverage Industry
• Timmons and Company, Inc. Agriculture, Aviation/Aircraft/Airlines, Budget/Appropriations, Consumer Issues, Homeland Security, Labor Issues/Antitrust/Workplace, Taxation/Internal Revenue Code
• Troutman Sanders Public Affairs Group Agriculture, Animals, Environmental/Superfund
• Van Scoyoc Associates Advertising, Alcohol and Drug Abuse, Arts/Entertainment, Budget/Appropriations, Immigration, Manufacturing, Taxation/Internal Revenue Code, Trade (Foreign and Domestic), Transportation

In 2007 the firm spent $1.62 milion and in 2008 $920,000 lobbying the following US governmetnal agencies

• US House of Representatives
• Environmental Protection Agency
• Federal Trade Commission
• Department of Commerce
• Department of Agriculture
• Department of the Interior
• US Senate
• Consumer Product Safety Commission
• Department of the Treasury

Affiliations

• International Conservation Caucus Foundation member of the Conservation Council