Anheuser-Busch buys Rolling Rock brands

ST. LOUIS -- Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc., citing consumers' need for variety in beer, said Friday it will pay $82 million to purchase the Rolling Rock beer brand from InBev USA, the U.S. subsidiary of Belgian-Brazilian brewer InBev SA.

The deal will allow Rolling Rock brands to be made available to more consumers, St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch said. The company will begin brewing Rolling Rock and Rock Green Light in August. Anheuser-Busch is the nation's largest brewer.

"We have an ideal opportunity to grow this historic brand," Anheuser-Busch president August A. Busch IV said. "This beer is not like others, and its consumer following is equally distinctive."

Ben Steinman, editor of the industry publication Beer Marketer's Insights, said the purchase is part of Anheuser-Busch's growing effort to diversify its product line.

In February, the brewery signed a deal to be the sole U.S. distributor of Grolsch, a high-end European import. At the time, Busch said the company was looking to add more import beers to its portfolio.

"A-B was something of a monolith -- they had these megabrands, Bud and Bud Light, and serviced the needs of a great number of drinkers," Steinman said. "What's been happening in the last several years is drinkers crave more variety and more choice. What you're seeing is A-B trying to get after this."

InBev USA, based in Norwalk, Conn., said it will sell its brewery in Latrobe, Pa., and focus its U.S. business on its imported beers, which include Stella Artois and Beck's. The company is currently in discussion with potential buyers.

"The decision to sell the Rolling Rock brands was based on InBev's strategic approach to the U.S. market, which is to focus on the high-growth import brands in our portfolio," said Doug Corbett, president of InBev USA.

Rolling Rock was introduced in 1939 by Latrobe Brewing Co. It was acquired by InBev's Labatt U.S.A. in 1987.

The sale has imperiled the jobs of more than 200 workers at the Latrobe brewery, which has operated for more than a century and has become a local and regional fixture.

Scores of unionized workers from the brewery gathered Friday at a hotel to pick up severance information.

"They're claiming we're going to stay open two and-a-half months," said Joe Mulheren, a union steward, told Pittsburgh's WTAE-TV. "If we don't get a buyer in two and-a-half months, we'll be done July 31st."

A closure could significantly affect the local economy as the brewery is among Latrobe's top sources of real estate tax and one of its biggest buyers of water.

Ed Dobies, who has worked at the brewery for 42 years, said that "taking Rolling Rock out of Latrobe doesn't sit right with me."

Anheuser-Busch said it will maintain Rolling Rock's and Rock Green Light's recipes, and will continue to sell the beers in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

Shares of Anheuser-Busch declined 6 cents to $46.13 in trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

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AP reporter Daniel Lovering in Pittsburgh provided some information for this story.

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On the Net:

www.anheuser-busch.com.

www.inbev.com.