Pabst Brewing Company

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The Pabst Brewing Company
legal form
founding 1844
Seat Los Angeles , USA
management C. Dean Metropoulos
Branch brewery
Website www.pabstbrewingco.com

Former Pabst Brewery in Milwaukee

The Pabst Brewing Company was an American brewery and is a beverage holding company based in Los Angeles . Pabst no longer owns its own breweries; its brands are produced in other breweries.

history

founding

The brewery was founded in Milwaukee in 1844 by the German emigrant Jacob Best under the name Empire Brewery and later renamed Best and Company . Best ran the brewery together with his sons Phillip, Charles, Jacob Jr. and Lorenz. Six years later, Charles and Lorenz left the family business and founded the Plank Road Brewery , which later became known as the Miller Brewing Company . In 1853, Jacob Best retired and Phillip took over management of the business. In 1859 he renamed it the Phillip Best Brewing Company .

At this time his daughter Maria met the ship's captain Frederick Pabst , who married her in 1862 and in 1863 acquired half of the shares in the brewery. One of the main reasons for the purchase was that Pabst had just barely escaped death while on a boat trip. Emil Schandein , Best's second son-in-law, bought the other half of the shares.

Ascent under Pabst and Schandein

Beer production has increased from around 300 barrels per year to over 14,000 since the brewery was founded . Phillip Best died in 1869. The brewery was officially founded and registered in 1873. At that time, more than 100,000 barrels were produced per year. In 1872 the brewery was already the second largest in the USA . In 1874, the South Side Brewery was incorporated into the company.

Thanks to the economic skills of the partners Pabst and Schandein, the company continued to grow. Both were keen to use the latest technology in manufacturing. Ice-making machines were introduced in 1880, and electric lights two years later. Standards were also set in the area of ​​marketing. The Phillip Best Brewing Company was one of the first breweries to offer public tours. After the tour, visitors were invited to the star inn attached to the brewery.

Emil Schandein died in 1888 during a visit to his home country in Germany, whereby the management was transferred to Frederick Pabst. On March 12, 1889, the company's name was changed to Pabst Brewing Company .

National expansion

At the World's Columbian Exposition , Pabst had a pavilion designed by the architect Otto Strack . On this, the brewery received the Gold Medal for Brewing Excellence in November 1893. Anheuser-Busch contested this award without success . At this time the characteristic blue ribbons were introduced. During the winners' celebrations at the exhibition, Pabst had blue ribbons put around the bottle necks. Finally, the well-known “Pabst Select” brand was renamed “Pabst Blue Ribbon” (“PBR” for short) in 1895. In the same year the brewery had an output of 1 million barrels. Frederick Pabst died in 1904. His son Gustav became his successor.

During the Prohibition period , Pabst sold malt extract , non-alcoholic beverages and cheese, among other things . The cheese business was later sold to Kraft .

After prohibition, Pabst managed to expand rapidly. In 1934 a brewery in Peoria Heights was bought, and the Hoffman Beverage Company and the Los Angeles Brewing Company in the 1940s .

Failure and sale

In the 1950s, sales dropped considerably. In 1949 Pabst was still the market leader, in 1957 only the seventh largest supplier. With the acquisition of the Valentin Blatz Brewing Company in 1958, James C. Windham became the new president. However, the American Department of Justice reversed the acquisition. The production facilities of the Blatz brewery were closed, but the beverage brands remained with Pabst until 1969. These were then bought by G. Heileman Brewing Company .

After several unsuccessful advertising campaigns, a price cut towards the end of the 1950s brought the company back on the road to success. Sales rose from 3.9 million barrels to 10.5 million in 1970 and a record high of 18 million in 1977.

Despite the setback with Blatz, further acquisitions followed: the Burgermeister brand of Theodore Hamm Brewing Company (1975), Blitz-Weinhard Brewing Company (1979) and the Olympia Brewing Company (1982). The acquisition of Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company in 1981 was banned by the Department of Justice . In the same year the G. Heileman Brewing Company made an offer to buy Pabst, but this was refused.

In the years that followed, sales began to plummet and the company was sold to Paul Kalmanovitz of S&P Company in 1984 for $ 63 million . Kalmanovitz implemented drastic cost reductions. After his death in 1988, Lutz Issleib became CEO and President. Under his leadership, the Pabst brewery's market share grew by more than 16 percent from 1988 to 1993, but was unable to maintain this upward trend.

Virtual brewery since 1996

In 1996, after 70% of the workforce had previously been laid off, the entire beer production was outsourced to the G. Heileman Brewing Company, a subsidiary of the Stroh Brewery Company . Thus, since 1996 Pabst has been a "virtual brewery". The original Pabst brewery was closed. Since then, the property has been the target of investors who want to purchase the property. In 2001, PabstCity was added to the National Register of Historic Places. In the center there is a bronze statue of Frederick Pabst.

In 1999, Pabst bought the Stroh Brewery Company and sold the Heilemans manufacturing facilities to the City Brewing Company . In 2001 production was outsourced to the Miller Brewing Company . At that time the headquarters were in San Antonio . In the same year, Best Place , a restaurant and museum about the history of the brewery, opened in the building of the former star host.

In 2006, CEO Kevin Kotecki moved administration to Woodridge . In 2008 Pabst began to offer the old Schlitz brand again.

On May 26, 2010, Pabst was bought by investor C. Dean Metropoulos at a cost of US $ 250 million. The headquarters were relocated to Los Angeles.

Brands

Pabst currently (2014) has the following brands manufactured:

  • Pabst Blue Ribbon
  • slot
  • Old Milwaukee
  • Colt 45 Malt Liquor
  • Blast Colt 45
  • Lone Star Beer
  • Old style
  • Rainier Beer
  • National Bohemian Beer
  • The Original Olympia Beer
  • Primo
  • Straw's
  • Stag Beer
  • St. Ides Malt Liquor
  • Champale
  • Special export
  • Mc Sorley's
  • Schaefer Beer
  • Schmidt
  • Pearl
  • Blatz
  • Ballantine

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c d Pabst Brewery History , accessed June 16, 2013
  2. ↑ a b c National Geographic Channel: Pabst Blue Ribbon Factory , accessed June 16, 2013
  3. ↑ a b c d e f Pabst Brewing Company: Historical Timeline , accessed June 16, 2013
  4. ↑ a b c d e f g Victor J. Tremblay, Carol Horton Tremblay: The US Brewing Industry: Data and Economic Analysis , p. 82 Available online on Google Books , accessed June 16, 2013
  5. ↑ a b On Milwaukee: History of Pabst Brewing Company , accessed June 16, 2013
  6. ↑ a b Los Angeles Times: Shuttered Pabst Brewery Brims With History , accessed June 16, 2013
  7. ^ Victor J. Tremblay, Carol Horton Tremblay: The US Brewing Industry: Data and Economic Analysis , p. 84, available online on Google Books , accessed June 16, 2013
  8. ↑ a b Yahoo Finance: Pabst Brewing Company (English), accessed June 16, 2013
  9. ↑ Best Place Milwaukee ( Memento from May 31, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (English), accessed on June 16, 2013