Like most feuds, this one’s about money and power. Anheuser, maker of Budweiser and Michelob and other brews, controls 46 percent of the U.S. beer market. That’s an amazing 30 billion cans annually (more than is consumed at an entire National Hockey League game). But Anheuser presides over a stagnant market. One way to boost profits is to assert more control over its 700 distributorships, especially the lucrative ones in beer-guzzling states like Florida (which ranks behind California and Texas in consumption). For example, Anheuser has tried to give distributors incentives to carry only its brands and squeeze out microbrews. “It’s a clash of traditional ways of doing business with demands for increased efficiency,” says Peter V. K. Reid, editor of Modern Brewery Age. The Maris distributorship enjoyed a 64 percent market share in northern Florida, turning an annual profit of about $6 million. The family’s lawsuit alleges that the termination is part of a secret Anheuser plan to take back many plum distributorships (it has ended a few other agreements). Anheuser lawyer Royce Estes says that’s “absolutely false,” and that the brewer “took every step possible to avoid” the breach with Maris.
Last September the Justice Department closed an antitrust investigation of Anheuser without taking any action. But the brewer’s distribution practices still face other legal challenges. Four microbreweries have brought restraint-of-trade lawsuits against the company, saying they were forced out of the distribution system by Anheuser’s tactics. The plaintiffs are asking a court to certify a class-action suit on behalf of all the country’s microbrewers and imported-beer makers. The company denies any wrongdoing. Anheuser’s closest competitors, Miller and Coors, also want to get bigger. The Justice Department has just approved Miller’s proposed deal with Stroh and Pabst.
The Maris dispute is being fought in two different venues. A federal case, on the antitrust claims, is set to begin later this year. No date has been set for a separate state action in Florida. But the King of Beers already has a public-relations black eye in the Sunshine State. After all, the late, great Maris reclaimed some of his fame last year when his single-season record of 61 home runs was broken by Mark McGwire of the Cardinals. In 1996, Anheuser offered the Marises $20 million for the distributorship, a price the family called “ridiculously low.” Regardless of who’s right legally, Anheuser may regret not upping that offer. Money isn’t what it used to be: McGwire gets paid about half that amount each year.
