Big to Bigger

May 31, 2007 - Houston's Anheuser-Busch distributor has agreed to buy the Budweiser distributor in San Antonio which it says will make it the nations' largest wholesale Anheuser-Busch distributor.

ADVERTISEMENT

Silver Eagle Distributors is planning to acquire San Antonio-based BudCo, which will join two of the largest beer distributor groups in Texas.

This deal follows suit to a growing trend of beer wholesalers consolidating to create ``mega-wholesalers,'' said Benj Steinman, editor at Beer Marketer's Insight, a trade publication for the industry.

``These large entities are being created and it really is where the beer industry is headed,'' he said. ``We used to have 5,000 wholesale distributors over 35 years ago, now we're down to 2,000.''

Industry sources put the deal at $250-$ million, or a whopping $20 per case.

``This is absolutely a transformative deal,'' said Steinman The combined company ``will control over half the volume for Anheuser-Busch in the state.''

Source: Chron.com