A WEE DRAM
CHRIS GILMOUR: AB InBev moves, inevitably, into craft brewing
While SA is a stellar, if tiny, performer within the AB InBev conglomerate, but volumes in North America are declining
Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev), the world’s largest brewer, announced half-year 2017 financial results that were slightly above expectations. The South African unit was a star performer, but obviously its contribution to the brewing behemoth is tiny. My personal stance is that AB InBev is a gigantic private equity company, whose performance to date has largely been directed by extreme cost savings rather than sustained organic growth. In recent times, it has chosen an exceedingly banal expression called "synergy capture" to refer to this obsessive cost-cutting. Neither this choice of words nor the publication of its latest results do anything to change my ambivalent view of the business, and I must admit to having the utmost respect for its sheer size and accomplishments. North America is AB InBev’s second largest market in terms of volume, after Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Volumes there declined by 2.7% in the half-year and in the US, specifically, almost 1% of market shar...
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