Bud Light’s parent company, Anheuser-Busch, announced this week that it will continue to offer financial support to wholesalers in the midst of a months-long boycott following a marketing campaign with a transgender influencer.
In a news release issued on Oct. 18, the brewing giant said it will offer the aforementioned support, fuel surcharge reimbursements, extended credit, and will add a market share recovery initiative for wholesalers. The firm did not make mention of the controversy or Bud Light backlash.
“As we look ahead, we will build momentum by leaning on the unparalleled power of our brewer-wholesaler partnership and on the strength of our portfolio,” the release from Anheuser-Busch said. “Today, we are sharing how we are extending our assistance to ensure our wholesaler partners have the support they need to move forward, connect with consumers, and drive growth in our markets across the country.”
Reports citing anonymous sources have indicated that the company is offering as much $150 million in relief for 2023 alone the boycott started in April. One distributor told the New York Post that they “imagine for those that are having some cash flow concerns, this would help somewhat.”
Over the past six months or so, Bud Light has lost at least 20 percent of its customers, industry experts have said. For the week ended Sept. 9, data from Bump Williams Consulting suggest that the beer’s sales were down about 30 percent year over year, reported Newsweek.
Earlier this year, Modelo Especial became the number-one beer in the United States after dethroning Bud Light. Meanwhile, other beer companies have said they are now vying for shelf space in the midst of the backlash against the beleaguered beer.
Molson Coors, which owns Miller Lite, has been “gaining significant amounts of shelf space at dozens of major U.S. retailers,” CEO Gavin Hattersley told investors in an earnings call, reported the New York Post. “We just want our fair share of the Bud Light debacle,” Dick Yuengling, the chief executive of Yuengling, told the newspaper.
Harry Schuhmacher, the publisher of Beer Business Daily, told Fox News in September that recent figures show that the drop in Bud Light sales are “quasi-permanent,” adding, “You see Bud Light still just stubbornly down around 30 percent in volume compared to last year, which is where it’s been since May or June.”
“That tells me that this is quasi-permanent, meaning those consumers are just lost forever,” he said.
Less Space?
In mid-September, beer industry experts, wholesalers, and a former Anheuser-Busch executive told ABC News that Bud Light might see less refrigerator space in stores in the near future.“During a busy shopping period on a Friday or Saturday night, if you don’t have the beer available cold on the shelf, consumers pick something else,” former Anheuser-Busch InBev executive Anson Frericks, a public critic of his former company, told the broadcaster.
Shelf space at places like Walmart, 7-Eleven, and other retailers is “the single largest determinant of sales in a store,” and warned there will be a “dramatic shift” for Bud Light, he said.
Dave Williams, vice president of analytics and insights at Bump Williams Consulting, said that retailers often watch for sales figures to determine what brands would be given the best shelf space.
“There’s explosive growth on one side and sharp decline on the other,” Mr. Williams said, according to the broadcaster. “This does have that ripple effect where if Bud Light loses space on the shelf, that could make it a longer-term endeavor to claw back to where they were if they’re ever able to do that in the first place.”
A report Drinks Market Analysis found about 80 percent of beer sales occur at retailers and similar locations where consumers can take the product home. Another 20 percent of beer sales occur at bars and restaurants, according to the report.
The Bud Light backlash started when the company opted to make a personalized beer can for transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney, which was then posted to social media. Conservative celebrities and influencers soon called for a boycott of the brand, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a 2024 Republican presidential candidate, later called for his state to investigate the company for alleged misuse of funds.
In the weeks after the backlash started, Anheuser-Busch InBev CEO Michel Doukeris told investors on a call that just “one can” was made with the influencer’s face and that there was no official partnership. He also blamed alleged social media “misinformation and confusion” for the boycott and disputed the claims that it was a campaign.
“It was not: it was one post. It was not an advertisement,” he stated.
But in August, Mr. Doukeris told investors that Bud Light is currently “working hard to build it back and to earn back consumers” and has worked with a third-party firm to engage with about 170,000 customers across the country.
