Local News
Busch-Miller merger has Heileman family reminiscing
La Crosse’s brewery was one of largest and denied expansion in 80s
The possibility of a merger between America’s two biggest breweries would have been unthinkable 30 years ago.
That’s when La Crosse’s Heileman Brewery was just outside the top two. In the 1980s, Heileman chairman Russ Cleary was prevented by anti-trust laws from buying more breweries to expand his company.
Now, however, the Anheuser Busch and Miller deal apparently will happen and Cleary’s daughter Kristine thinks her dad would appreciate the irony.
Russ Cleary died in 1997, a few years after the takeover of Heileman by Australian Alan Bond.
Kristine Cleary paid a recent visit to the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse to kick off a series of annual leadership lectures that the family is co-sponsoring with the college of business administration.
