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Wednesday, May 26, 2010

AB InBev puts Bass up for sale

http://www.morningadvertiser.co.uk/news.ma/ViewArticle?R=87157

Such us the decimation of the UK brewing and pub industry.

If 'Giga Brewers', as Jonathan Meades coined them well ahead of the term 'Gastro Pub' in the nineteen nineties, could sell trillions of litres of imaginary yellow and pale brown liquid via Second Life they would jump for joy.

Beer is a cumbersome irritation to them but, alas, it is what they do. SO, given they deal in a product that is not conveniently anodyne enough for their commercial palate, their goal is to concentrate their energy exclusively on rationalising, shedding and streamlining anything they have the power to change. Making their products identical to each other and ubiquitous is core to their long term vision which is focused on moolah and moolah alone. Oh, and the pay packet of the Board of course.

Staurt (sic) Macfarlane represents an international corporation which unashamedly shirks locality, authenticity and sense of place in favour of flogging homogenous high profile bland brands in gargantuan volume. Dumping a bunch of neglected has-been products that don't fit their profile is just a flick of another day's press release.

Where, incidentally, is the 'emotional attachment' to beers Macfarlane talks about which started off with a distinctive character that came specially and particularly from the place they were originally brewed, once the brewery is turned into a shopping centre, retail park or luxury residential and the beer is produced somewhere else?

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