By Tripp Mickle
Anheuser-Busch InBev NV is moving its U.S. sales and marketing
hub to New York City from St. Louis next year as the world's
biggest brewer searches for ways to reverse declining volumes in
its largest market.
The new 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.
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 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, according to people close to the company.
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.
The giant brewer eliminated 1,400 jobs in the U.S. after
acquiring Anheuser-Busch InBev in 2008, or about 6% of the
workforce at the time. Many of those cuts were in St. Louis.
The maker of Michelob and Bud Light has seen its U.S. beer
volumes shrink 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.
The innovation group, which helps launch new products, and
experiential marketing, which oversees licensing and the brewer's
famous Clydesdale horses, will remain in St. Louis.
Write to Tripp Mickle at Tripp.Mickle@wsj.com
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