This week’s $46 billion bid by a Belgian brewer to take over Anheuser-Busch could be a boon for the San Fernando Valley and its 800-worker plant in Van Nuys, local business leaders said Thursday, the L.A. Daily news reports.
Despite fears that InBev SA would move to slash Anheuser-Busch operations, InBev officials made it clear Thursday that there is no plan to close any U.S. plants and that, in fact, expansion is more likely.
“We’re working to grow the business and the company,” said Marianne Amssoms, spokeswoman for the 89,000-employee company whose brands include Beck’s and Stella Artois.
Local plant officials did not return repeated calls for comment Thursday on the $65-a-share unsolicited bid by InBev, significantly higher than the company’s stock price of $58.35 before the offer.
But Bruce Ackerman, president and CEO of the Economic Alliance of the San Fernando Valley, said InBev’s offer indicates the company wants to expand St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch rather than raid its assets.
“If anything, it’s a positive change, and they’ll increase production,” Ackerman said, noting that the Van Nuys plant, with its capacity to produce 12million barrels a year, is a “flagship operation” in a prime market.
And local economists said InBev’s buyout, if successful, would be different from Stroh Brewery Co.’s purchase of Schlitz Brewing Co. in 1982.
