ACQUISITIONS
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“It’s important to foster growth and give
back to the very people who help our
business survive.”
ALL IN THE FAMILY
For Philip Busch, who comes from a long
family line of beer luminaries, it’s all about
family. And what a family.
Philip’s great-great-grandfather,
Adolphus Busch III, took a solid regional
brewing operation in St. Louis and blasted
it into the stratosphere. In the course of
his career, Adolphus built 18 breweries
in cities across the country and created
America’s first national beer, Budweiser.
It’s interesting to hear from Philip that
Adolphus never liked the taste of beer;
he preferred wine. He discovered a small
brewery in Czechoslovakia that produced
a light pilsner beer called Budweiser.
Adolphus pioneered pasteurizing the
product so it could be shipped long distances
and he started using refrigeration
for the first time.
Philip’s great-grandfather, “Gussie”
Busch, kept up the momentum, but diversified
the company’s direction and public
exposure with several marketing innovations.
He purchased the St. Louis Cardinals
baseball team, built Busch Gardens and
came up with using Clydesdale horses as a
marketing tour de force.
Philip has been president of Southern
Eagle for 10 years. And while Peter is still
available for business advice, Philip says
it is his show now. He has always wanted
to work in the beer business, which he
describes as multifaceted, interesting
and exciting.
Philip clearly recalled his father’s 40th
birthday celebration. Peter borrowed a
friend’s mega yacht and threw himself
a lavish party for 500 guests. During the
party, Philip took the microphone to announce
to the world that he really wanted
to be part of this exciting business and
how he couldn’t wait to take over. He was
12 at the time.
He is one of six siblings, but the only
one to take a consistent interest in the
company.
“It’s the perfect industry to stay engaged,”
he said, “You’re always learning
new things. It keeps you on your toes.”
BOLD BUSINESS MOVE
Philip and his chief financial officer, Paul
Trabulsy, 61, have spent a lot of time recently
on their toes. Since August, Southern
Eagle had been negotiating for a bold
and perhaps daunting business opportunity
that concluded with the purchase of
Brown Distributing.
Beer distributors form one-third of the
chain of beer delivery from brewers to
distributors to retailers, including bars,
restaurants and grocery stores. Anheuser-
Busch dictates strict franchise territories
for individual distributors as a way to
encourage competition and to keep such
lucrative companies in as many hands
as possible.
Coincidentally, on the very same day
in 1984 that Peter Busch took over the
Treasure Coast franchise, Brown Distributing
signed to take on distribution in Palm Beach
County. Last year the ownership of Brown
decided it was time to sell the business.
Brown had aggressively been buying up
Southern Eagle Distributing’s 130,000+ square foot warehouse houses over 1,500 unique products.
Adolphus Busch III created America’s first
national beer, Budweiser.
>>
Peter W. Busch at Southern Eagle’s Christmas party
in 1990 with sons David and Philip.
“I have a real strong passion
for my people,” Philip said. “They
count on me. Life’s too short
to work for an *******. You can
achieve results without being an
overbearing, numbers-driven
person, that’s not real.”
— Philip Busch
/TCBusiness.com