Supply Chain Management
In a bid to optimize its supply chain management, In-Bev NV, a beer brewing company, strategy was to acquire the ownership of some of the major industry players. In 2008, the company placed a $46.4 billion bid to get the ownership of Anheuser-Busch Co. Anheuser-Busch Co. was popular for its Budweiser brand which had been in the market for 132 years. After negotiations, In-Bev was able to acquire the ownership of Anheuser at a price of $70 a share. Inter-brew was able to penetrate some of the global market through the acquisition of some of the market’s major players such as John Labatt a Canadian brewer, Bass and Whitbread a United Kingdom brewer and the Beck a Germany Brewer. There was a merger between Inter-brew and Am-Bev that lead to the formation of In-Bev NV in 2004, in a bid to optimize their global market.
The major goal of this acquisition was to strengthen the company’s market competitiveness and build a strong global market for the benefits of all the stakeholders.
Target Markets
The success of the company brands in the target markets was highly influenced by the nature of the distribution. The major target market’s included Latin American, Europe and North America. In a bid to further increase is market competitiveness the company entered into a deal with Anheuser-Busch at an offer of $70 a share. The major goal of this deal was to improve the supply chain management and also collaborate in the management by drawing a management team from either company. The stability of the Inter-brew’s brands in the local and regional market was as a result of its unique supply chain management strategy (Harun 23). The company’s major global markets include China, Germany, United States, Japan, Russia, Mexico, Brazil and the United Kingdom.
Critiques to In-Bev and Anheuser-Busch Supply Chain Management Strategy
The beer market at a global scale is mainly influenced by the quality and the price of the products. It is for this reason that the beers are categorized into the premium, super-premium and the mainstream brands. The top market is usually associated with the premium brands while the higher market is known to consume the super-premium brand. The middle and the lower market segment are associated to the mainstream brands. The higher the pricing of a brand, the higher its quality and ranking with regards to market segmentation. The company’s brands competitiveness is also determined by the economy of the target market.
In the developing countries the mainstream brands sells more as compared to other brands. In the developed countries the premium and super premium brands sells more. In the United States the premium brands such as Miller Lite, Coors Light, Corona and the Bud light have a high demand as compared to the mainstream brands (Harun 25). However, I feel that the company has focused more on acquisitions and thus neglecting other aspects of an effective supply chain management such as customer service, strategic outsourcing, and technology and customer relations.
Recommendation
As the company focuses on acquiring global partners, it should also invest in technology that will assist in advertising, control, and management of the global market. There are various factors that determine the consumption rate in the company’s brands global market. Some of these factors include the market structure, patterns of consumption, state regulation, customer density, supply chain, and the advertising mechanisms. The company should thus focus on addressing these factors at an equal measure to enable it optimize its market performance and stabilize its supply chain.
Works Cited
Harun, Pirim. Supply Chain Management and Optimization in Manufacturing. Springer International Publishing, 2014. Print.