Anheuser Busch Distribution

Anheuser-Busch owned breweries. That was obvious, but the real business was distribution. Beer is cheap to make, but heavy to ship and expensive to move. A brewery could produce beer cheaply, but without efficient distribution to bars and liquor stores across a region. Margin disappeared immediately. By 1990, Anheuser-Busch had built a network of hundreds of independent distributors across America. These distributors invested in trucks, warehouses, and retail relationships. They were locked in. Anheuser-Busch granted exclusive territory rights, meaning one distributor handled all Budweiser in that region. A Texas distributor who built relationships with 200 bars was not switching brands. The margin structure was leverage.