For Immediate Release:
Wednesday, March 8, 2017
AG Stein Contact:
Laura Brewer (919) 716-6484
Senator Berger Contact:
Amy Auth (919) 301-1737
(RALEIGH) Attorney General Josh Stein and Senate Leader Phil Berger today urged U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions to require Anheuser-Busch and InBev – the first and second largest beer brewers in the United States – to sell a brewery in Eden, North Carolina, as part of the companies’ merger. This brewery, which has capacity to brew over 8.8 million barrels each year and accounts for 4 percent of all beer production in the United States, is currently out of operation.
Requiring the companies to sell the brewery to a competitor as part of the merger would allow it to reopen, potentially restoring hundreds of jobs.“We write the USDOJ to take action that would save hundreds of good-paying jobs North Carolina’s families need,” said AG Stein. “It would help consumers by making the beer brewing market more competitive. The Eden brewery is efficient, profitable and award-winning. It and its hundreds of employees in North Carolina should be put back to work. I urge AG Sessions to take smart and fair action that will restore jobs, protect consumers and spur economic development in Rockingham County and the Piedmont Region.”
“More than 500 people have lost their jobs and livelihoods in Rockingham County and there is absolutely no reason why multinational conglomerates should force Eden’s state-of-the-art brewing facility to sit empty and rot away simply because they don’t want competition,” said Berger. “We hope our U.S. Justice Department will require mandatory divestiture of this brewery like it did during a smaller merger of beer companies three years ago and keep American jobs in America.”
The federal court reviewing this merger has not yet taken action on this case.
The North Carolina Department of Justice also submitted comments to the U.S. Department of Justice about this merger in September 2016. That letter is available here.
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