ST. LOUIS -- Anheuser-Busch InBev NV is moving its U.S. sales and marketing hub to New York City from St. Louis next year, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. The move comes a month after the beer brewer cut an unspecified number of job in the U.S. to consolidate its sales division and after creating a high-end business unit based in Chicago.
The moves come as the world’s biggest brewer searches for ways to reverse declining volumes in its largest market.
AB InBev’s U.S. headquarters will remain in St. Louis, where Anheuser-Busch got its start more than a century ago. St. Louis also will remain home to the majority of its U.S. corporate employees, in addition to its largest U.S. brewery.
But the brewer said Tuesday it will open another New York office next year to house its U.S. commercial division. Many employees will be relocated from St. Louis. The company’s high-end U.S. business that works with brands like Stella Artois and Shock Top will also move to New York.
AB InBev Chief Executive Carlos Brito and other senior company executives are already based at the global corporate office in New York. The company’s formal headquarters are in Leuven, Belgium.
The new New York office, which involves nearly 250 people, represents a new economic blow to St. Louis. The Midwestern city already has lost hundreds of jobs at Anheuser-Busch since Belgium’s InBev acquired the leading U.S. brewer and maker of Budweiser in 2008 for $52 billion, according to the newspaper.
The company said the relocated employees won’t work at the company’s existing New York office. It is looking for new office space in the city.
AB InBev said it decided to relocate sales and marketing to New York so that staff could be nearer to advertising agencies and sports leagues it sponsors, such as the National Football League and Major League Baseball.
Management also thinks shifting jobs to New York will help it recruit new employees and retain top marketers and sales executives, people close to the company told WSJ.
AB InBev, an aggressive cost cutter, laid off several hundred U.S. employees last month. It is consolidating its sales regions to seven from eight and shuttering its internal media buying division, Busch Media Group.
U.S. beer volumes at the maker of Michelob and Bud Light have fallen for several years as more consumers switch to small “craft” brewers. AB InBev reported its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization in the U.S. fell 2.1% in the first nine months of the year.
The majority of AB InBev’s marketing staff will move to New York by next summer, including its media, brand management and insights divisions, according to people familiar with the matter.
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