Belgium-based InBev’s audacious $46B bid for Anheuser-Busch sure has been fun to watch. Carlos Brito and the battling Belgians, owners of Beck’s, Labatt, Lowenbrau, St. Pauli Girl, Stella Artois and Skol, have so far beat the gang from St. Louis on my PR scorecard.
By naming Adolphus Busch, uncle of A-B CEO young Augie Busch, to its dissident slate of directors, InBev scored a masterful PR coup. This savvy move shows the Continentals respect the family heritage of the more than 150-year-old American company. The dissident board is packed with reps of Blue-Chip America. It includes guys like Hank McKinnell, former CEO of Pfizer; John Lilly, ex-CEO of Pillsbury, and James Healey, former CFO at Nabisco Group Holdings. They stack up quite nicely against the likes of A-B directors including Henry Hugh Shelton, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; James Forese, COO of Thayer Hidden Creek, and Joyce Roche, CEO of Girls International.
A-B, for its part, gets PR points for creativity. It believes InBev’s “illegal scheme” to take over the “King of Beers” is a violation of the “Trading with the Enemy Act.”
A-B is not referring to Belgium, one of those chocolate-producing countries that infuriated Don Rumsfeld when he was looking for allies in the invasion of Iraq. It is referring to Cuba, the great American bogeyman. InBev employs 570 Cubans at its Bucanero brewery on the island. They apparently are poised to hop a boat and head for St. Louis once InBev wins A-B.
There is more than a touch of jingoism in A-B’s effort to thwart a takeover by the ungodly Belgians. A-B positions as an American icon, yet admits future growth is geared to places like Mexico and China. Is Joe Six-Pack going to dump InBev-owned A-B for MillerCoors, a venture nearly 60 percent owned by London’s SABMiller? Don’t think so.
A-B is hard-pressed to call itself the defender of U.S. jobs. A-B workers were the first to get the shaft. The company’s “strategic plan” to remain independent calls for cuts in jobs and benefits. Rubbing salt in the wound, A-B says beer price hikes are part of its survival plan. Would InBev be any worse?
What A-B needs is some strong PR counsel. Fleishman-Hillard used to run the brewer’s PR. The Omnicom unit is a free agent in the InBev/A-B fight.
Augie should give F-H CEO Dave Senay a call before wily Carlos does.
