ST. LOUIS -- Anheuser-Busch, the St. Louis-based unit of Belgian brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev, is selling its Western Beverage Co., a large wholesale operation based in Eugene, Ore., to Major Brands Inc., a large Missouri wine and liquor operation, reported The St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Epsten, the CEO, is forming a new company called Major Eagle Inc. to buy Western Beverage, which produces an estimated 6 million to 7 million case equivalents per year and reportedly ranks among A-B's top 25 distributorships.
Major Eagle will purchase A-B's 56% stake in Western [image-nocss] Beverage as well as the 44% stake held by other shareholders. The deal is expected to close by the end of the year, said the newspaper. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Epsten said he was excited about the prospect of being "in the beer business in an even larger way, and being part of the A-B network."
A-B has traditionally liked to own a few distributorships to give the company a better sense of how things are going in the market, the report said. It is rare for Anheuser-Busch to sell one of its company-owned beer distributorships, it said, adding that it is rarer still for the company to sell to an outsider, someone who is not already involved in carrying A-B's beer.
In a statement cited by the Post-Dispatch, Tony Short, Anheuser-Busch's vice president of business and wholesaler development, stressed that the transaction "was under consideration for several months prior to the close of the A-B InBev merger."
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