It’s just what you might need after a few bottles of the iconic Budweiser or a Michelob or two - a ride on a mythical beast that is part eagle part lion, towed to a height of 205 feet and then hurled at 90 degrees back towards earth at a speed of 75 mph and a force of G4.
The Griffon, at Busch Gardens Europe in Wiliamsberg, Virginia (confusingly) claims to be the tallest dive coaster in the world. It is also the world’s first “floorless” coaster and the first to incorporate two Immelmann loops - an inverse diving loop named after a WWI German fighter pilot.
Busch Gardens Europe is one of ten theme parks owned by Anheuser Busch in the US, the other parks operating under the Adventure Island, Aquatica, Discovery Cove, SeaWorld and Water Country USA brands. Most of the parks around California, Florida, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
The company also recently announced plans for a multi-park venture called Worlds of Discovery in Dubai, which is due to open in 2012.
Anheuser’s entertainment division accounts for about eight per cent of net group sales - $1.27bn in 2007 and enviable ebitda margins of close to 30 per cent.
But InBev, the Belgian-based brewer plotting to take Anheuser over under a plan code-named Project Aluminum, doesn’t see itself getting into the theme park game.
Any takeover of Anheuser would be part-financed by the sale of the entertainment division, according to a source with detailed knowledge of InBev’s plans.
Also up for sale would go Anheuser’s less profitable packaging business. Together the two divisions might fetch more than $6bn.
