BREWERY EXECUTIVE HAS EYE ON PRODUCT QUALITY

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- When Michael J. Roarty talks, it's a good bet he'll be discussing Budweiser, Busch or Michelob and marketing of the Anheuser-Busch products.

Roarty, executive vice president of corporate marketing and communications for Anheuser-Busch Companies Inc. of St. Louis, delivered the keynote address following a luncheon of the Small Business Conference at the Show Me Center Tuesday.

"This is my first visit to Cape Girardeau," said Roarty, a native of Detroit who has been in the St. Louis area since 1972. "But I'm familiar with the Cape Girardeau area; we have a 50 percent beer-market share here, and that's up 10 percent over last year."

Roarty said most people think of beer when Anheuser-Busch is mentioned.

"But we have other interests," he said. "We have a total of 15 companies, including bakery goods, theme parks, and a baseball team the St. Louis Cardinals."

But Anheuser-Busch's big thing is beer. A year ago the firm produced 86.5 million barrels of 16 different varieties of beer. A new brand, Michelob Golden Draft, is being introduced to test markets this week.

Roarty was here to discuss quality in business, the topic of the day-long conference. A half-dozen business seminars were offered during the session.

Quality was the topic of discussions by Harry Sanders, M&W Packaging, U.S. Inc., and Kerry Welker, site logistics manager of Procter and Gamble here. Other speakers included Vincent J. Cannella, KPMG Peat Marwick; Jim Violette, quality control manager of Ford Motor Co.; and Del Wakley of Newspaper Advertising Bureau.

The conference was sponsored by the university's College of Business Administration and the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce's University Relations Board.

"Consumers look for quality regardless of the product," said Roarty. "People looking for quality will find it, and that's the reason for Anheuser-Busch's success in the brewery field."

Roarty used a big-screen video to highlight his remarks.

"The founders of this company back in 1852 were concerned about quality, and our motto is `Somebody Still Cares About Quality,'" said Roarty.

"Quality never goes out of style," he said. "We care about brewing the best beer, and we also care about the people who drink it."

Anheuser-Busch supports a number of programs designed to stop alcohol abuse, he said. "We feel we should be partners in alcohol-abuse programs," he said. "We support the `Designated Driver' and the `Know When to Say No' programs."

Roarty joined the company in 1953 while he was in graduate school at the University of Detroit.

Welker, a native of Perryville, said quality was all-important in operations at P&G plants. "The company's goal is to more than double business over the next three years," he said.

It had been announced in November 1990, that the local plant was one of five sites under consideration for a major expansion of the company's toilet tissue and paper towel business. Welker said there are no current plans for immediate expansion of the local plant.

"Those plans were put on hold because of the recession and business climate late last year," said Welker. "But we have a good plant here and there could be some expansion announcements within the next two years," he said.

Welker received a bachelor-of-science degree in engineering management at Missouri-Rolla before joining Procter and Gamble in 1975.