AB-InBev to relocate 600,000 hl of Beck's to the U.S.

AB-InBev's German employees are worried. In early November 2011 workers at the Beck's brewery in Bremen were told that in 2012, about 600,000 hl of Beck's beer will be brewed at the St. Louis brewery. In 2013, another 80,000 hl, currently exported to Canada from Bremen, will be brewed at Labatt's in Canada.

The total volume of Beck's to be relocated to North America represents over 10 percent of Bremen's beer output, estimated at 6 million hl.

Needless to say that employees are fearing for their jobs. Union representatives have been quoted as saying in German media that up to 100 jobs in Bremen could be lost.

An AB-InBev spokesperson called these speculations plucked out of the air.

Already in January 2010 AB-InBev announced it would cut over 380 jobs in Germany or about one in ten jobs as part of a western European cost cutting effort. While Belgian brewery workers went on strike to fight the plan, AB-InBev's German workers acquiesced.