Brewery sale critics take updated look
Bond — I was afraid we would lose employees in the company, but also suppliers, farmers. I hoped that they wouldn’t go through with it. Everybody knew there were going to be job cuts. A significant number of employees and contractors were cut off.
On the other hand, it is still a major St. Louis company, and it still has a presence there. Anheuser-Busch is still an icon in St. Louis. I do appreciate the fact that they’ve made some major charitable contributions. They are continuing to provide jobs. Those things are important. There are still a lot of fine people, good friends of mine that are still employed there.
McCaskill — By and large, the InBev merger has been a success for St. Louis. They have done a good job of staying very involved in the community. I’m particularly encouraged by the number of high-level North American executives that have located in St. Louis as opposed to New York, which shows they see St. Louis as the epicenter of their operations here in the United States. They have certainly continued to stay involved in the community.
While there has been some loss of employment numbers, I think that was going to be the same case had the merger not occurred. Anheuser-Busch was in a position where they also needed to cut costs as they looked at their competitiveness payday loans with no fax.
Overall, I feel good about what has happened. I was very skeptical about the merger in the opening weeks of the potential merger … (But) I do feel like they have made a very good effort. They continue to be the kind of corporate citizen that we need to be proud of in St. Louis and be as supportive (of) as possible.
Slay — I wish the brewery were still locally owned. I feel sorry for the people who lost their jobs. But, the decision to sell A-B was out of all our hands.
The fact remains that one of the largest beer makers in the world still employs thousands of St. Louisans. It still pays millions of dollars in state and local taxes. (So far, we have not seen a drop-off in collections.) It still supports the retirement portfolios of many others, makes a lot of beer in the city, donates money to a lot of St. Louis charities, and buys more than 2 billion gallons of our municipal water.
So, it remains very much in our best interest that Anheuser-Busch InBev succeeds.
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