Anheuser-Busch Buys Rolling Rock for $82 Million
It’s been a marriage in the making. Anheuser-Busch said Friday that it has purchased the Rolling Rock brands from InBev USA for $82 million.
The acquisition will expand Anheuser-Busch’s portfolio of products and leverage its sales and distribution channels to reach more consumers. Under the deal, Anheuser-Busch, the maker of Bud and Bud Light, acquires the Rolling Rock brands and recipes. Anheuser-Busch will begin brewing Rolling Rock and Rock Green Light in August. The beverages will continue to be sold in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
“We have an ideal opportunity to grow this historic brand,” said August A. Busch IV, president of Anheuser-Busch Inc., in a statement “This beer is not like others, and its consumer following is equally distinctive. We live in a diverse world where consumers are hungry for variety. Acquiring Rolling Rock enables us to reach a new audience and to continue building our broad portfolio of products that meet the wide-ranging needs of consumers.”
Introduced in 1939 by Latrobe Brewing Co. and acquired by InBev’s Labatt U.S.A. in 1987, Rolling Rock is an historic, American lager well-known for its distinctive painted green bottle.
Norwalk, CT-based InBev plans to sell its brewery in Latrobe, Pa., separately to focus its U.S. business on imported beers. InBev USA is the U.S. subsidiary of Belgian-based InBev.
St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch also owns a 50% share in Grupo Modelo, Mexico’s leading brewer, and a 27% share in Tsingtao, the No. 1 brewer in China.
