BY PAT SUMMERS
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
Yesterday the Justice Department filed an antitrust suit against the proposed $20B purchase of Mexican brewer Grupo Modelo, maker of Corona, by Anheuser-Busch InBev, the international conglomerate that makes Budweiser and many other beers, the BizJournals.com reports. The suit might prevent domestic beer prices from going up across the board.
The department’s move would call a halt to beer company mergers that have occurred essentially without challenge since 1980. Then, there were 48 major breweries; now there are two – Anheuser-Busch InBev (ABI), the country’s largest beer company, and MillerCoors, the second largest.
The proposed purchase of Modelo, the country’s most popular beer import, would substantially reduce competition and probably raise prices in the domestic beer market. While ABI, usually followed by Miller, has consistently raised beer prices, Grupo Modelo has resisted that trend, keeping prices low.
