Two of the world’s best loved lagers are produced by Anheuser-Busch, a company that has history, culture and a distinct taste. It traces its roots to an 1852-founded brewery in Bavaria, which the company founder Eberhard Anheuser acquired in 1860. The new brewery business was rebranded as E. Anheuser & Co. After four years Adolphus Busch, Anheuser’s son-in-law and a prominent German businessman, got involved with the business and made a name for himself. His contributions were recognized by Anheuser and the company was eventually named into what is now Anheuser-Busch.

A company’s future is normally defined by the forefounders’ vision and Busch’s legacy revolves around a commitment to only the highest of standards throughout all the processes and product lines. He introduced modern marketing tools and new technologies that revolutionized the company, and consequently secured its spot as an industry leader. As the first American brewer to bring in artificial refrigeration, pasteurization, extensive beer bottling, and refrigerated railcars, his leadership excellence was concretized through the pioneering of the company’s production processes. This would serve Anheuser-Busch extremely well in the coming years of having to prove itself not just a good company, but also one that exhibits greatness.

This would translate to objectives and strategies that made St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch the beverage powerhouse that it is today. Currently, it has created two best-selling and internationally recognized beers: Budweiser and Bud Light, which was introduced in 1982. From the single brewery it began with, the present business optimizes its 12 breweries that are based in the United States while excellently maintaining its numerous operations across the continents.

Anheuser-Busch declares that “making friends is our business”, and it has been doing excellent business at that for the past decades. It most probably has one of the largest networks of friends, what with its 48.5% ownership of U.S. beer sales shares in the market. The year 2007 saw the company with an impressive 128.4 million barrels in beer sales volume. Today, it is profiled with the upper percentiles in the Fortune 500 and FT Global 500.

For the year 2009, Anheuser-Busch received a perfect score (100%) from the “Corporate Equality Index” of the Human Rights Campaign Foundation. The recognition is in honor of the company’s treatment of GLBT (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender) employees, investors and consumers.

Following the tradition that its first executives committed themselves to, today’s management team is dedicated to leadership that is aligned with the vision Anheuser-Busch was founded on. At the forefront of the company’s executive direction is Thomas “Tom” W. Santel. He is currently the company’s president, chief executive officer and vice president for corporate development. Santel’s role is focused on advancing the company’s international market domination in its South America, UK, Europe and Asia operations. Prior to serving the topmost positions in the immense structure of the company, he was the Vice President of Anheuser-Busch’s Corporate Planning division with eleven years of exemplary contribution. His background in the brewery business also includes a stint with Mexican company Grupo Modelo, during which he oversaw Budweiser and Bud Light brands importation into Mexico.

More information about Anheuser-Busch:

Site for Anheuser-Busch’s Corporate Responsibility, which discusses issues such as drunk driving and underage drinking.

Collection of New York Times articles about Anheuser-Busch.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 25th, 2009 at 6:52 pm and is filed under Company Profiles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.