2 minute read
The Legal Side
a few days later get that coil back to us. And if we make a can in our can plant down in Arnold, Mo., 30 miles south of us in St. Louis, we will typically ll it [with beer] within a day of it being made. And then it’ll be on the market within a couple of days after that. Obviously, it depends on the aluminum supplier and when he wants to try to put recycled product into his work stream there, but it can be a very quick turnaround, and it’s in nitely reusable.
Payment terms, especially extended payment terms, are often a sore spot at the intersection of OEM and CPG, especially with large CPGs. How do Anheuser-Busch and Budweiser packaging operations approach their equipment vendor relationships with regards to extended payment terms?
We have certain targets around weighted average payment terms that are set by our Board of Directors. And we understand that long payment terms are not popular with our suppliers and really, quite honestly, we’re not trying to make things tough for our suppliers. We recognize that A SCALE that is a burden there. But what we will try to do is work with the suppliers to try to perhaps change our progress payments, to try to get money earlier into the process. Or, generally speaking, try to partner FOR ANY with them a little bit more to work with better overall terms and conditions. Maybe not necessarily the payment terms, but, say, liability terms and that type APPLICATION APPLICATION of thing. Then we can work with them to make it an easier contract for them to sign.
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Inspection Systems Inspection Systems Seltzers were a recent big trend for beverage manufacturers small and large. Will we see them keep growing, or give way to something new?
It’s hard to say what the next trend is because the consumer de nes the next trend. We think that the seltzer market still has more legs to it—more avors and that type of thing—but our innovations team is constantly working on all kinds of different brands and all kinds of different varieties to try to gure out what the next big thing is going to be. We’ll test market that and see what sticks.
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Gentle Handling Options So what’s the next big thing coming out of Budweiser on the packaging side of things?
I wish I knew. We have the aluminum bottle, which was a nice, innovative package. It sells a lot, but it’s not high-volume seller. We have a lot of new innovation that’s primarily around the package and the exibility around the different types of packages. You will see us introducing, say in the next say year or so, a completely new package for a machine that was developed in-house by Anheuser-Busch. It will be introduced into the market for some secondary packaging for bottles. —Matt Reynolds
