Anheuser Busch

[ewrord]

I have heard that AB no longer has a corporate flight department. Does anyone still operate out of the former AB hangar at SUS? Does the Busch family still operate planes and are they out of that hangar now?

 

[SinglePliot135]

Pretty sure they are still running a skeleton crew over there - but this is just from someone who drives and taxis by.

 

[AA717driver]

Inbev goes airline.

I think the Busch family kept a 900 (Rumor has it that Augie IV tried to keep the 7X order but daddy III said no...)

IV whacked lost his girlfriend to an unfortunate accident recently.

TC

 

[Brett Hull]

I think the Busch family kept a 900 (Rumor has it that Augie IV tried to keep the 7X order but daddy III said no...)

Daddy wanted the 7X. Junior wanted to cut costs. Led to the demise of the company.

http://www.beverageworld.com/index....usch-inbev&catid=3:daily-headlines&Itemid=173

Although the corporate jets were a boon to doing business at A-B, they also provided a huge distraction in a previously undisclosed incident from 2007.

Busch IV, just one year into his reign atop the company, was pushing a plan to slash $400 million in expenses. It was named "Project Blue Ocean." U.S. beer sales were sluggish. Shareholders were getting impatient.

Busch IV discovered the company was about to take delivery of a Dassault Falcon 7X—a top-of-the-line jet, the first corporate fly-by-wire plane, a $40 million beauty that made aviation enthusiasts swoon. A-B would be among the first in the world to get one. It could fly nonstop from St. Louis to the A-B brewery in China. The plane was in Arkansas getting fitted with final interior details and a paint job.

The Falcon 7X was Busch III's baby. He had been waiting several years to get it. But Busch IV, who did not return a call and e-mail requesting comment for the story, objected. He felt the plane sent the wrong message. The company was trying to control costs. Father and son had long faced a notoriously difficult relationship.

"It was a major moment in the rift between the two of them," the former A-B executive said.

Around the flight operations department, word was that Busch III was angry beyond belief, and the dispute was like "World War III between the two of them," recalled one former flight operations worker. "That 7X was the end of it all."

Months later, InBev would make its bid to buy A-B. But the 7X debacle had so spoiled relations between Busch III and Busch IV that the company was not able to draw up a united plan to fend off InBev, the former executive said.

"That became a real problem," the executive said. "It was seen as a sign of weakness."

And the 7X plane never made it to the A-B hangar in Chesterfield. It went to a buyer in South America.

 

[ewrord]

The IV cancelled the 7X and the III was quite upset about it. If you are interested in the InBev takeover a good book on it is Dethroning the King. The III is actually mostly responsible for the downfall of the company.

 

[Gulfstream 200]

Also love to know where you can get a "top of the line beauty" 7X for $40mil.

And agree...the book is a pretty good read.

 

[AA717driver]

Ah, it's good to be King.

TC

 

[njcapt]

Also love to know where you can get a "top of the line beauty" 7X for $40mil.

More like $55M with the custom interior I heard it got.

 

[svcta]

Anheuser busch?


Fine, thank you!

 

[Gulfstream 200]

More like $55M with the custom interior I heard it got.

yeah, likely...even right now $50mil seems to be the number...I'd consider picking one up myself for the bargain price of 40..