Anheuser-Busch InBev Big Apple bound (St. Louis, O'Fallon: credit, houses, living)

[DinsdalePirahna]

Originally Posted by imperialmog

Isn't the big reason for the move would be that executives from Belgium and Brazil can't get to St. Louis directly? If that's the case it could be a case of the airport's decline contributing to the problem. Now if St. Louis started getting some more international flights, maybe a sweetheart deal could convice ABInBev to move HQ here for some cheaper corporate office space.

A possiblilty is the China Air Cargo deal occurs, and it has been said that it could also beome a deal with passenger flights arriving with a hub in St. Louis. One of the Cargo ideas was to be a transfer between China and South America so if it expanded to passenger it could also be a transfer between China and Europe as well allowing the option of a company to move here.

If there was a market for direct connections to StL the airlines would have flights. StL really isn't a tourist destination, there are no real national class destinations nearby and from contracting at 5 locally based national businesses, it is very apparent that they operate insularly. No real need for direct flights.

Most corporate jets can fly transatlantic routes. I know they have a policy of flying business class where ever possible., If having access to STL was really that important to AB/Inbev, they would have kept more of the corporate jet fleet. I think they have 2 or three planes left.

AB/Inbev isn't really a brewer, they are more of a trading company. Immediate access to the financial markets of NY, London, Brussels and Asia are just easier from NY.

I still think the China hub is smoke and mirrors. St. Louis does not have immediate access to major open water ports and that will be a local intermodal hub's Achilles heel. Ships and rail are more efficient ways to move product. Planes will be limited to carry cargoes of plastic dog turds and other lightweight Chinese made crap destined for dollarstores and wallmart..

[billiken]

Originally Posted by DinsdalePirahna

AB/Inbev isn't really a brewer, they are more of a trading company. Immediate access to the financial markets of NY, London, Brussels and Asia are just easier from NY.

I still think the China hub is smoke and mirrors. St. Louis does not have immediate access to major open water ports and that will be a local intermodal hub's Achilles heel. Ships and rail are more efficient ways to move product. Planes will be limited to carry cargoes of plastic dog turds and other lightweight Chinese made crap destined for dollarstores and wallmart..

I would disagree with the trading company perspective on their business. I think the value driver for AB is their marketing and branding. If you look at their financials, there's a lot of focus on market share and volume growth. I'm sure financial instruments help them manage the costs of materials for beer, but this isn't the real value driver.

I do, however, agree on the China hub. While it would be a good thing for St Louis, it's also important to realize that 97% of their goods are transported over water--at least that's what I was told when I asked in Panama while talking with some people who work in the canal operations. There's a definite reason they're expanding the canal...

[goat314]

So now the China Hub deal is smoke and mirrors? Wow St. Louis just cant win with you people!

[DinsdalePirahna]

Originally Posted by billiken

I would disagree with the trading company perspective on their business. I think the value driver for AB is their marketing and branding. If you look at their financials, there's a lot of focus on market share and volume growth. I'm sure financial instruments help them manage the costs of materials for beer, but this isn't the real value driver.

That may be true for Budweiser and maybe Michelob products, but when you look at the big picture very few of other InBEV brands market as heavily. I wouldn't be surprised if many of their smaller brands are the same product in different containers. Rolling Rock's taste as changed considerably since they ABInbev closed the Latrobe plant and started making it here. It now tastes a bit like Busch.

Originally Posted by billiken

I do, however, agree on the China hub. While it would be a good thing for St Louis, it's also important to realize that 97% of their goods are transported over water--at least that's what I was told when I asked in Panama while talking with some people who work in the canal operations. There's a definite reason they're expanding the canal...

Which would make New Orleans or Houston a better choice for a mid-America hub. St. Louis will pick up the scraps. As I have mentioned before, Columbus, Ohio already has a intermodal transit hub, with closer access to great lake ports. I would be real careful in dealing with China anyway.

[DinsdalePirahna]

Originally Posted by goat314

So now the China Hub deal is smoke and mirrors? Wow St. Louis just cant win with you people!

How much was sent on runways for flights that never came?

Its almost like your airport planners get there advice from the New Guinea Cargo Cults.

[goat314]

Originally Posted by DinsdalePirahna

That may be true for Budweiser and maybe Michelob products, but when you look at the big picture very few of other InBEV brands market as heavily. I wouldn't be surprised if many of their smaller brands are the same product in different containers. Rolling Rock's taste as changed considerably since they ABInbev closed the Latrobe plant and started making it here. It now tastes a bit like Busch.




Which would make New Orleans or Houston a better choice for a mid-America hub. St. Louis will pick up the scraps. As I have mentioned before, Columbus, Ohio already has a intermodal transit hub, with closer access to great lake ports. I would be real careful in dealing with China anyway.

Did you fail geography or something? There is nothing Mid-American about New Orleans or Houston. The Chinese are trying to tap the Midwestern markets not the Gulf Coast. Chicago serves as our current Midwestern-International Hub, but Chicago has severely congested railways, airports, and docks. I've heard people in the logistics business say that the Chinese are looking at St. Louis as more of a supplemental port to Chicago than a stand alone hub.
Regardless of scope, a new hub in St. Louis would result in two things for sure:
1) Many new jobs in the region to support the new hub
2) Plugs St. Louis into the global marketplace

I thought you would be a fan of this Dinsdale?
St. Louis is such an insular, cultural backwater!
We could really use some of this globalization to bring some new jobs, transplants, and diversity.

[goat314]

Originally Posted by DinsdalePirahna

How much was sent on runways for flights that never came?

Its almost like your airport planners get there advice from the New Guinea Cargo Cults.

I'm guessing you meant spent?
I know that the airline business took a really big hit after 9/11 and hasn't really recovered since. St. Louis spent billions on runways in anticipation of future growth. At the time Lambert was one of the busiest airports in the nation and fairly congested my friend.

[billiken]

Originally Posted by goat314

I'm guessing you meant spent?
I know that the airline business took a really big hit after 9/11 and hasn't really recovered since. St. Louis spent billions on runways in anticipation of future growth. At the time Lambert was one of the busiest airports in the nation and fairly congested my friend.

I think it may have more to do with the fact that Lambert used to be a TWA hub, but then American bought them in 2001--and they already have hubs in Chicago and Dallas.

[DinsdalePirahna]

it means that St. Louis is not an important direct destination. If it were there would be direct service

I remember when Lambert was a TWA hub and it still never seemed that busy.

So how did we get from Invev to airports (i know, it's partly my fault)

[moorlander]

some reasons why the hub makes since.

St. Louis is the second largest inland port in the US; the third largest rail commerce center; and the intersection of four major interstate highways. Within 600 miles (a day’s truck drive) of the Arch are more than a third of the country’s population, workers, gross domestic product, and disposable income – and almost half of the country’s manufacturing employment.



Lambert Airport has three parallel, all-weather runways and is adjacent to more than a thousand acres of developable ground. Nearby Mid-America Airport has parallel runways of 8K and 10K, and 900 acres of land around it. Compared to, say, Chicago (hundreds of miles further north of the country’s center), St. Louis’ airports offer fewer congestion- and weather-related delays – and, consequently, lower costs.



It is a simple economic reality that more and more US goods will be going to China over the next several decades. An airfreight hub in St. Louis makes perfect sense.

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