Becoming the World's Biggest Brewer: Artois, Piedboeuf, and Interbrew (1880-2000)
Kenneth Bertrams, Julien Del Marmol, Sander Geerts, and Eline Poelmans
Abstract
AB InBev is today’s uncontested world leader of the beer market. It represents over 20 per cent of global beer sales, with more than 450 million hectolitres a year flowing all around the world. Its Belgian predecessor, Interbrew, was a success story stemming from the 1971 secret merger of the country’s two leading brewers: Artois and Piedboeuf. Based on first-hand material originating from company and private archives as well as interviews with managers and key family actors, this is the first study to explore the history of the company through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.The story ... More
AB InBev is today’s uncontested world leader of the beer market. It represents over 20 per cent of global beer sales, with more than 450 million hectolitres a year flowing all around the world. Its Belgian predecessor, Interbrew, was a success story stemming from the 1971 secret merger of the country’s two leading brewers: Artois and Piedboeuf. Based on first-hand material originating from company and private archives as well as interviews with managers and key family actors, this is the first study to explore the history of the company through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.The story starts in the mid-nineteenth century with the scientific breakthroughs that revolutionized the beer industry and allowed both Artois and Piedboeuf to prosper in a local environment. Instrumental in this respect were the respective families and their successive heirs in stabilizing and developing their firms. Despite the intense difficulties of two world wars in the decades to follow, they emerged stronger than ever and through the 1960s became undisputed leaders in the national market. Then, in an unprecedented move, Artois and Piedboeuf secretly merged their shareholding in 1971, though keeping their operations separate until 1987 when they openly and operationally merged to become Interbrew. Throughout their histories Artois, Piedboeuf, and their successor companies have kept a controlling family ownership. This book provides a unique insight into both the complex history of these three family breweries and their path to becoming a prominent global company, and the growth and consolidation of the beer market through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Keywords:
beer,
AB InBev,
Interbrew,
Artois,
Piedboeuf,
brewer,
family firm
Bibliographic Information
Print publication date: 2019 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780198829089 |
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: January 2020 |
DOI:10.1093/oso/9780198829089.001.0001 |
Authors
Affiliations are at time of print publication.
Kenneth Bertrams, author
Professor, Université Libre de Bruxelles
Julien Del Marmol, author
Researcher, Université Libre de Bruxelles
Sander Geerts, author
Junior Researcher, KU Leuven
Eline Poelmans, author
Assistant Professor, KU Leuven
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