Anheuser-Busch, which continued to grow its Cartersville brewery after the iconic beer company’s merger with Belgium’s InBev in 2008, is pouring more into the plant with an $85 million expansion.
The investment in Bartow County will create 12 jobs, diversifying a facility that already makes 20 brands in the global beer conglomerate’s portfolio — including the recently certified organic Michelob ULTRA Pure Gold.
“The U.S. beer industry is back to growth and over the next three years, we will expand the brewery’s capabilities to brew some of our best-selling brands right here in Georgia,” said Kevin Fahrenkrog, senior general manager of the brewery, which also makes Budweiser, Bud Light and other brews.
The Cartersville location launched in 1993 and has remained in production since then, with investment continuing to pour in despite initial uncertainty surrounding the InBev merger. By 2011, AB InBev had already invested $65 million in packaging and other enhancements, with a new $1.5 billion investment strategy for its American breweries announced in 2015. More brands came into the family when the company bought SABMiller the following year.
AB InBev’s U.S. headquarters the longstanding Anheuser-Busch base in St. Louis.
In Cartersville, about 45 miles northwest of Atlanta, the brewery sometimes takes a pause with the sudsy stuff to produce canned water to be distributed by the American Red Cross to disaster victims. Much of that has gone to flooding victims in the U.S., but the company also sent some of its white aluminum cylinders to Haiti after the devastating earthquake there 10 years ago.
