USA: AB InBev to invest $9 mln in its brewery in Baldwinsville, New York

Brewing giant Anheuser-Busch announced on August 5 it will invest $9 million this year to make improvements to its big brewery just outside of Baldwinsville, Syracuse.com reported.

The work will help expand the local brewery’s capacity to make “non beer” products like NÜTRL Vodka Seltzer and Skimmers Vodka Iced Tea, the company said in a news release.

Such products, which are a fast-growing sector of the alcohol market, have long been a specialty of the brewery located off Route 31 in the Radisson business park. As an example, Anheuser-Busch chose this brewery to launch its Bud Light Hard Seltzer line in 2021 and before that its Lime-A-Rita brand.

The plant is the largest brewery in New York state, bigger than Genesee in Rochester and F.X. Matt (Saranac) in Utica.

The new investment at what the company calls the “Baldwinsville brewery” also includes equipment maintenance and updates to the brewery’s refrigeration units. The company says it has invested $90 million in the Baldwinsville brewery in the past five years.

“Anheuser-Busch is committed to supporting the communities where our employees live and work,” said Anheuser-Busch CEO Brendan Whitworth, in the news release. “Investments in our facilities like our Baldwinsville brewery help us to enhance our operations while also helping to create and sustain jobs and drive economic growth, because nothing goes better together than American beers and American careers.”

The local brewery has about 500 employees, many of them members of Teamsters Local 1149.

The work at the Baldwinsville plant is part of Anheuser-Busch’s “Brewing Futures initiative” launched this year. The company is investing more than $300 million in its all its U.S. facilities “to create and sustain U.S. manufacturing jobs,” according to the news release.

Baldwinsville is one of 12 breweries operated by Anheuser-Busch InBev in the United States. The company operates another 90 or so facilities across the country, including warehouses and more.

The Baldwinsville plant opened in 1976 as a Schlitz brewery. Anheuser-Busch bought in the early 1980s, and after a brief shutdown for renovations reopened it in 1983.

In 2008, Anheuser-Busch was taken over by InBev, a Belgium-based global beer conglomerate, creating the new company, Anheuser-Busch InBev. It is the largest beer company in the world.