Anheuser-Busch Companies, LLC

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Anheuser-Busch brewery, St. Louis, Missouri.

Bev Sykes

Anheuser-Busch Companies, LLC is one of the largest brewers in the world, producing beer under the Budweiser, Bud Light, Busch, Michelob, and Stella Artois labels, as well as several craft beer brands. In 2008, it became a subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch InBev. The headquarters are in St. Louis, Missouri.

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Budweiser logo.

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The company had its origins in a small brewery opened in St. Louis by George Schneider in 1852. This faltering enterprise was bought by the soap manufacturer Eberhard Anheuser in 1860, and the following year Anheuser’s daughter married Adolphus Busch, a brewery supplier who became the driving force behind the brewery’s future success. Busch pioneered the use of refrigerated railcars and of pasteurization in the brewing industry as part of his efforts to create the first nationally selling beer in the United States. In 1876 the company introduced a new, light-colored pilsner beer called Budweiser. In 1879 the company was incorporated, and the name E. Anheuser & Company was changed to Anheuser-Busch Brewing Association. Busch became president of the company in 1880 after Anheuser’s death. The Michelob brand was introduced in 1896.

The 20th century began with continued growth in order to keep up with rising demand. But when the Prohibition era began in 1920, Anheuser-Busch sales plummeted. The company survived by shifting production to brewer’s yeast and malt products such as ice cream and nonalcoholic malt beverages. Busch also opened several restaurants in St. Louis.

The company greatly expanded its brewing operations during the presidency of August Anheuser Busch, Jr. (1946–75) . Beer consumption resumed after the Eighteenth Amendment was repealed in 1933, and skyrocketed after World War II. By 1957, Anheuser-Busch—led by its flagship Budweiser (“the king of beers”) brand—became the top-selling brewer in the U.S.

Busch’s ambitions extended beyond alcoholic beverages. In 1953, the company bought the St. Louis Cardinals professional baseball team, and in 1959, it opened Busch Gardens, a zoo and amusement park with African themes, in Tampa, Florida. In 1975 (the same year August A. Busch III replaced his father as CEO) the company added a second Busch Gardens amusement park—this one with historical European themes—near Williamsburg, Virginia. In 1980, Anheuser-Busch opened Sesame Place, an amusement park with a Sesame Street television show theme, near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

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Busch Gardens Tampa Bay in Tampa, Florida.

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The company’s theme parks division would double its size in 1989 with the purchase of SeaWorld, which at the time owned and operated four marine life–focused theme parks (plus two other parks that the company would shed soon after the acquisition).

In 1996, Anheuser-Busch sold its interest in the St. Louis Cardinals to a group of private investors led by businessman William DeWitt. The team would continue to play its home games at Busch Stadium (which in 2005 would be replaced by a new ballpark, also called Busch Stadium).

Anheuser-Busch, which spent many years as the world’s largest brewer, was surpassed in 2004 by InBev, a corporation formed by the merger of AmBev and Interbrew. Anheuser-Busch remained the largest in terms of revenue, however. The firm diversified into such industries as aluminum recycling, real estate development, turf farming, label printing, and the processing of raw materials such as rice and malt.

But the biggest change would come in July 2008, when Anheuser-Busch agreed to be purchased by InBev for approximately $52 billion. After the takeover was finalized in November, the newly formed Anheuser-Busch InBev became the world’s largest brewer. The following year, Busch Entertainment (the catch-all name for the theme park division) was sold to private equity group Blackstone for an estimated $2.7 billion. Blackstone would spin it into a new company, SeaWorld Entertainment, which would change its name to United Parks and Resorts (PRKS) in 2024.

Anheuser-Busch Companies, LLC operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch InBev. In addition to its legacy Budweiser, Bud Light, Michelob, Natural Light, and Busch labels, the company operates brands such as Stella Artois, Landshark, Hoegaarden, and Presidente (which is co-owned by former New York Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez). The company has also acquired several craft brewery brands such as Goose Island, Elysian Brewing, and Wicked Weed, and also branched out into non-beer alcoholic beverages such as hard seltzer and canned cocktails.