The Beer Industry Is A Competitive

     In this paper I will be talking about the U.S. beer industry and in short an overview of the brewing industry worldwide. I will talk about the barriers to entry, economies of scale, government intervention, pricing, current market trends, product differentiation, and imports. The focus being mainly on the U.S. brewing industry oligopoly. The U.S. brewing industry has three major players: Anheuser-Busch, SAB Miller, and Coors/Molson. Anheuser-Busch is currently the largest brewer in the world, producing over 100 million barrels a year. Anheuser-Busch currently owns over 50% of the market in the United States, with Miller trailing behind at 20% and Coors at about 11% with the rest of the market occupied by imports and craft breweries. When analyzing any industry, how easy it is for newcomers to enter the market is a great importance. If there are high barriers to entry

This review provides an in-depth strategic SWOT analysis of the company’s businesses and operations in the areas of internal strengths and weaknesses and external opportunities and threats. (Sector Publishing Intelligence)

Investors for Craft Brewery Start Ups _______________________________________________ 24 Craft Beer in a Tin initiative:_______________________________________________________ 25 Corporate Social Responsibility ____________________________________________________ 26 Economics of Beer: _______________________________________________________________ 28 Building a Craft beer brand: _______________________________________________________ 29

The craft-brewing segment of the beer industry has experience fluctuations in demand from a high of 58% growth in 1995 to a decline of 5% annually from 1997 to 2003 (Gilinksy et al., 2014, p. C-92). However, it is now experiencing rapid growth. At the commencement of 2012, 6.5% of U.S. beer sales were generated by craft brewers and that number increased by 15% by the conclusion of the year (Gilinksy et al., 2014, p. C-92). The growth of the market presents LBC with an opportunity to generate additional revenue.

SWOT analysis can be used to describe and analyse a company’s internal capabilities in relation to its competitive environment. A strategy behind

“A SWOT Analysis is the most used tool for audit and analysis of the overall strategic position of the business and its environment. Its principal purpose is to identify the strategies that will create a firm-specific business model. The plan aligns the organization’s resources and capabilities to the requirements of the environment in which the firm operates. The analysis is to evaluate any potential and limitations and the probable/likely opportunities and threats from the external environment. The results provide the positive and negative factors inside and outside the firm that affect the success.” A SWOT analysis is conducted to determine the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and potential threats to the organization. ("SWOT

A documentary film made in 2009, Beer wars features and describes the American beer industry distinguishing between the large and small breweries. The large breweries feature some main corporate companies like Coors Brewing Company, Anheuser-Busch, and Miller Brewing Company whereas the small breweries include craft beer producers like Moonshot 69, Stone Brewing Company, Dogfish Head Brewery, Yuengling, and others. The documentary shows how the beer market is controlled through advertising and lobbying, which is harmful for the competition in the market. There is a reason why the small companies are falling behind and the large corporates are controlling the market, which in turn makes it essentially oligopoly economy.

Anheuser-Busch Inc. is a dominating global leader in the beer industry, specifically in the United States. Its roots can be traced all the way back to 1852 from the Bavarian Brewery in St. Louis MO when Adolphus Busch traveled from Germany to join his father-in-law. In 1876 Budweiser was founded and rooted its brand in values, ethics, and quality. These core staples of the company evolved all the way to 1982 when Bud Light was introduced. Today Bud Light is the best selling beer in the U.S. and the #1 beer sold by volume in the world. Let’s take a look into the marketing mix that makes this product so successful.

Anheuser-Busch is a company that concerns itself with the manufacture, marketing as well as distribution of alcoholic beverages. Anheuser-Busch according to the company website, "is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch InBev" (Anheuser-Busch 2011). I chose Anheuser-Busch for this discussion based on its relative size and market share. Currently, the entity is considered one of United State's largest brewing companies. Hence it is likely that given its relative size and the huge chunk of the market it controls, Anheuser-Busch would have to contend with quite a number of economic issues. Indeed, the continued success of Anheuser-Busch in the highly competitive alcoholic beverages marketplace largely depends on how it handles these issues.

SWOT, (Strengths, Weakness, Opportunity, and Threat) analysis describes a business’s greatest strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (Helms, 2010). With this information available, the consultant/ marketing strategist enables grouping of internal and external issues as a starting point for strategic planning (Helms, 2010). SWOT is easily put together, and one can benefit from multiple viewpoints as a brainstorming exercise (Helms, 2010). One of the first steps strategist conducts are internal weakness and strengths which range from efficiency, capacity, structure, image, resources access, and financial opportunities (Helms, 2010). The next step that have to be conducted are external factors that deal with, customers, social change, trends, competitors, technology, along with economic and political regulatory issues (Helms, 2010).

SWOT Analysis: The internal strengths and weaknesses of the company, and the external opportunities and threats from the viewpoint of the company

The brewing industry is interesting to examine due to its relatively unique structure. Up until November 2015, the market was dominated by four main players, known informally as the “Big Four”. AB InBev was the largest, followed by SABMiller, Heineken and Carlsberg. In November 2015, however, ABInBev and SABMiller agreed a formal $107 billion takeover deal, combining the brewers into a company which industry experts claim would control around half of the industry’s profits (Mickle, 2015). As a result of the sheer size and complexity of the merger, it is anticipated that the deal will not be finalised until the second half of 2016 as ABInBev must negotiate with anti-trust regulators around the world with respect to their potential monopolistic position. As the deal is yet to be completed, this report will analyse ABInBev independent of SABMiller.

SWOT analysis is a popular analysis tool used in different situations that include not just business and marketing but also project planning and personal career development (Chapman 1995-2012). As for the strategic planning, Kenneth Andrews popularized his idea that good strategy means keeping a fit between the external situations a firm faces and the internal capabilities (Hill and Westbrook, 1997). The format the SWOT analysis presented is a 2x2 'internal/external' matrix, in which questions and relative answers can be listed for analysis (chapman 1995-2012). And according to Hill and Westbrook (1997), the output of SWOT analysis comes from meetings facilitated by consultants or managers to contribute the final analysis. Brainstorming can be used for filling in the sections to answer the questions. In addition, similar arguments should be concluded and ranked according to their answers in meetings (Rauch, 2007). As for the newly developed analysis, the TOWS matrix matching the various factors enables companies to stimulate new strategic initiative (Dyson, 2004).

SWOT analysis is a useful tool for understanding and decision-making for all sorts of situations in business and organization. SWOT analysis can be classified into internal and external factors affecting a company. The Strengths and Weaknesses of the SWOT analysis represent the internal factors that influence the viability of the company. While the Opportunities and Threats, on the other hand, are the external factors that may affect the company's performances. A SWOT analysis provides more understanding of the organization in relation to its internal and external environment so that manager can formulate better strategy in pursuit of its mission.

|The global beer industry is dominated by large corporations who have merged with rivals to increase their global and domestic market share. |