AB-InBev buys oldest brewery in Budweis

One rival less to use the Budweiser label. AB-InBev has bought the “other” claimant to the Budweiser name, the small Budějovický Měštanský Pivovar located across town from state-owned Budweiser Budvar. AB-InBev confirmed the transaction on 2 July 2014, but did not disclose any terms.

The move to buy the physical facilities comes just three years after AB-InBev acquired the intellectual property (primarily trademarks) of the bankrupt Budějovický Měštanský Pivovar from Harvestor, a local financier.

Prior to that deal, the owner split the brewery into two packages, the brewery facilities and the intellectual property, and flogged the trademarks off to AB-InBev. With the valued “Budweiser Bier” stripped from the label, Měštanský Pivovar resumed sales under its previous Samson trademark. The brewery had a reported annual production of 175,000 to190,000 hl in 2013.

With this latest deal, AB-InBev has completed its acquisition of the entire brewery and its trademarks.

AB-InBev bought the Samson brewery from Taurus One Ltd., a privately held and Cyprus-registered firm. The corporate shell changed names from Harvestor to Taurus One Ltd, but the ownership remained the same.

Měštanský Pivovar is the former German brewery in town, while Budweiser Budvar was the beer for Czech nationalists. Měštanský Pivovar dates back to 1795 and has used the Budweiser name since 1802. This would make it the original Budweiser Beer, as Anheuser-Busch has only used the Budweiser label since 1876. Budweiser Budvar was founded in 1895.

Observers say the sale of Měštanský Pivovar to Anheuser-Busch aka AB-InBev has long been on the cards due to a deeply flawed privatisation deal that split the smaller Měštanský brewery off from the still state-owned Budweiser Budvar brewery during the post 1989 privatization.

Budweiser Budvar played down the significance of the deal. “The ownership change [of Samson] has no relevance on [Budweiser] trademarks and ongoing court cases between Budějovický Budvar and AB-InBev,” Petr Samec, the spokesman for Budvar was quoted as saying.

Budvar’s claims to the Budweiser brand are centered on the fact that it is named after the town where it is brewed, České Budějovice, also taking note of the German name Budweis.