Anheuser-Busch International, Inc., brews and distributes its products in 29 European countries and sells under import distribution agreements in more than 80 countries and U.S. territories. The company also is one of the largest U.S. manufacturers of aluminum beverage containers — and the world's largest recycler of aluminum beverage containers. Anheuser-Busch is currently celebrating its 150th anniversary and reported annual sales in 2001 of approximately US$13 billion.
Mike Redohl, group director of procurement for Anheuser-Busch, Co., responsible for purchasing the corrugated containers used to ship its various products, views maintaining strong business relationships with packaging suppliers as critical to conveying and maintaining the company's top-quality image.
Ed Boyle: What is the purpose and goal of the packaging you specify, and to what extent is it part of your brand management and marketing?
Mike Redohl: Our goal is to sell beer. To that end, our packaging must protect our products throughout the distribution chain while maintaining our high-quality image.
We also view packaging as a marketing tool and another way to convey image and other brand messages to adult consumers.
EB: Anheuser-Busch is known for its innovative graphics on its products. How important are the graphics on the box?
MR: Our graphics are extremely important given the nature of beer purchases.
We want our customers to readily see at the point of purchase that our products are the highest-quality, freshest brands available in the market.
EB: Do you specify the surface properties of the boxboard or top-liner of the corrugated with graphics in mind?
MR: We have, within the past year, utilized more pre-printed liners for our larger-count bottle packs.
Specifically, our 18, 20 and 24-count bottle packs are now available in pre-printed boxes.
EB: How do you select the boxmaker? Do you have distributed packaging facilities that require several boxmakers in different parts of the country or world to make boxes for the same product?
MR: We have, and will continue to, select suppliers who provide the highest-quality product at the lowest overall cost to Anheuser-Busch.
We have multiple suppliers who make the same packages, and we rely on our specifications and quality systems to ensure consistency.
EB: Regarding your box procurement function, are your boxes and beverage packaging done regionally or is it from a single source? Do you use any special techniques for working with your packaging suppliers?
MR: Our corrugated purchases are handled on a national basis, and since we deal exclusively with national suppliers, we rely on them to source the production among their various facilities. It is also important that our suppliers develop and maintain positive local relationships with our breweries.
EB: Do you test samples in-house or do you use an outside source for that?
MR: We do most of our testing in-house, but also use outside labs as needed depending on the scope of the test.
EB: Is it just a physical test, or do you also evaluate the appearance with some sort of test? How do you specify performance for folding carton and corrugated containers?
MR: Our tests are comprehensive and include a review of the package graphics. We specify our boxes based on consistent standards of performance throughout our supply chain.
EB: In designing your packaging, to what degree do you look to your packaging suppliers to provide innovation in the design and structure of the packaging?
MR: We have strong business relationships with our suppliers, and we work together to bring new designs and technology to the market. We fully support the two-way exchange of information.
EB: How important is brand management in selecting packaging for your products? For instance, do brand managers drive the packaging and design, or is that primarily an engineering responsibility?
MR: Our company is highly regarded for its marketing efforts, and our brand management team normally controls the look of our packaging.
At the same time, our packaging technology group is constantly working with marketing to ensure our packaging makes the most impact and is also the most functional in the marketplace.
EB: Is point-of-purchase an important aspect of packaging for your company?
MR: Point-of-Purchase is obviously important for our company. Like most consumer goods companies, Anheuser-Busch wants to stand out at the retail level. In order to do so, it is important that our packages maintain a high-level look throughout the distribution channel.
EB: If a packaging company wanted to bid on some of your packaging business, is there a website or place they could go to find out how?
MR: We do not have a website for potential suppliers. Interested suppliers are invited to call our corporate purchasing department at (314) 577-2000.
