USA: Anheuser-Busch may consider turning to liquor industry if beer sales stay flat

Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc., the largest U.S. brewer, may consider expanding beyond beer in the liquor industry if sales of wine and spirits continue to take market share, The Wall Street Journal said on June 21.

"If this trend continues, we at Anheuser-Busch will have to re-evaluate our business model going forward in terms of expanding beyond beer and broadening our position within the total alcohol industry," said August Busch, president of the company's U.S. beer operations, according to the Journal.

Busch made the remarks this month before a national gathering of state liquor administrators in Boston, it said.

Since 1995 beer has lost 5 percentage points of U.S. market share to wine and spirits, the newspaper said.