A major contractor for Bud Light maker Anheuser-Busch is shutting down two of its glass bottling plants in North Carolina and Louisiana, laying off about 600 employees, amid declining sales of the beer.
The Ardagh Group, headquartered in Luxembourg, is one of the largest glass producers in the world with more than 100 plants in operation.
Around 245 employees will lose their jobs with the closure of the plant in Simsboro, and an estimated 390 employees will lose their jobs at the glass bottling plant in Wilson, according to most reports.
The move to close the two plants is “in response to recent weakness in market demand” and is also pursuant to Ardagh’s “multi-year performance optimization program,” the group said.
Sales Drop Amid Boycotts
Bud Light was America’s best-selling beer for two decades but in the month ending June 3, it was overtaken by Modelo Especial, a Mexican lager. According to Bud Light, however, so far this year it remains the top-selling beer brand in the United States in terms of dollar sales and overall volume.Sales of Bud Light have been declining since early April, owing to boycotts of the beer after the company sent a commemorative can to Dylan Mulvaney, a biological male who identifies as female, who posted the product on social media on April 1.
Mulvaney, a transgender activist, also claimed to be in a partnership with the brand in a hashtag, although Anheuser-Busch distanced itself from that claim.
A separate advertisement released by a local Alabama Budweiser and Anheuser-Busch product distributor had also asserted that Bud Light never was in a partnership with Mulvaney.
Transgender Influencer Breaks Silence
In a recent Instagram reel, Mulvaney spoke out publicly on Bud Light for the first time on June 29, although the influencer did not mention Bud Light by name.“I was waiting for the brand to reach out to me, but they never did. ... For a company to hire a trans person and then not publicly stand by them is worse, in my opinion, than not hiring a trans person at all because it gives customers permission to be as transphobic and hateful as they want,” Mulvaney said.
Anheuser-Busch said in a response to multiple media outlets that, “We remain committed to the programs and partnerships we have forged over decades with organizations across a number of communities, including those in the LGBTQ+ community.”
The statement continued, without mentioning Mulvaney by name: “The privacy and safety of our employees and our partners is always our top priority. As we move forward, we will focus on what we do best—brewing great beer for everyone and earning our place in moments that matter to our consumers.”
