ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Few American cities are as closely linked to a company as St. Louis is to Anheuser-Busch, making for a difficult day for some here when Belgium-based InBev closed its $52 billion buyout of the brewer.
The Anheuser-Busch-InBev combination, which was completed on Tuesday, creates the largest beer company in the world, and one of the top five consumer product companies.
St. Louisans have had months to grow accustomed to the deal, but word that the brewer would no longer be locally owned still raises worries about what that will mean for the region's economy -- and its psyche.
The brewer employs about 5,700 people in the St. Louis area and pays roughly $32 million in state and local taxes and fees. Anheuser-Busch donated about $13 million to philanthropic and charitable organizations last year.
The company said in a statement Tuesday that it has not made any additional changes to its work force, adding that "InBev has affirmed its commitment to the community." St. Louis will remain the North American headquarters for the company.
Brewery tours that draw hundreds of thousands of visitors annually to the red-brick Anheuser-Busch complex in the Soulard neighborhood are expected to continue, as are symbols long associated with the brewery, like its famed teams of Clydesdale horses.
Robert Archibald, president of the Missouri Historical Society, said he has heard people are worried about "the loss of one of the last St. Louis icons," but he thought the city's strengths will allow it to "do just fine."
Brewing has historically been an important industry in St. Louis, brought about by waves of German immigrants who came to the region before the Civil War. Beer, which would not have been pasteurized at the time, was often stored underground in area caves to keep it cold.
Anheuser-Busch had its roots in the Bavarian brewery, which Eberhard Anheuser acquired in 1860. His son-in-law, Adolphus Busch, in 1864 joined the company that would later become Anheuser-Busch.
There used to be dozens of breweries in St. Louis, but Archibald noted Anheuser-Busch developed its reputation through its marketing genius.
In St. Louis, the brewery's name is commonplace, glowing on signs at Busch Stadium where the baseball Cardinals play and marking the business' many corporate sponsorships of area programs and events.
In Archibald's view, there was a certain inevitability that the long-standing business, closely associated with a family, would change into a larger company and operate on a global scale.
But all the economic realities in the world can't sway St. Louis residents, for whom the loss of local A-B ownership feels personal.
"It's kind of a shame we're losing local control of it, but I expect I'll still like the beer," said Jerry Venverloh, 85. He and classmates from his 1937 graduating class from Our Lady of Sorrows elementary school gathered there for lunch.
Venverloh said he expects changes will come to the brewery in St. Louis, including a reduction in jobs, now that the deal is complete.
"In my working life, I've been in situations where new owners come in, and say they'll keep everything the same. Six months later, everything changes," he said.
St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay said the company's chief executive, Carlos Brito, phoned him Tuesday afternoon. Brito said he and a team of employees will spend several months making changes at Anheuser-Busch, but Slay sounded a positive note.
"Closing the Anheuser-Busch InBev deal, of course, means that thousands of St. Louisans will now be sharing one of the largest infusions of wealth into this region in our history," Slay said in a statement. "Given the state of the national economy, it probably could not come at a better time."