BUD LIGHT: The world’s largest brewery may have lost up to $1.4 billion in sales as a result of the outcry for its brief engagement with a transgender influencer to market Bud Light beer.
Anheuser-Busch InBev (BUD) reported record revenue for 2023 on Thursday but said its “full growth potential was constrained” by its US division, where sales were hampered by a boycott of Bud Light over a sponsored Instagram post with Dylan Mulvaney.
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Bud Light Boycott Likely Cost Anheuser-Busch InBev Over $1 Billion In Lost Sales
In North America, organic revenue considered the strongest measure of operating success, fell $1.4 billion last year as beer sales by volume fell in the area, owing mostly to a drop in Bud Light sales in the United States. Beer generates the vast majority of AB InBev’s revenue.
Bud Light sales plummeted after the company collaborated with Mulvaney in April, which provoked an anti-trans outcry and called for a boycott. The company’s sluggish response to the controversy enraged LGBTQ+ advocates.
The conflagration caused Mexican lager Modelo Especial to dethrone Bud Light as America’s best-selling beer the following month, a status the company had held for over two decades.
Bud Light Boycott Likely Cost Anheuser-Busch InBev Over $1 Billion In Lost Sales
“In the US, performance remains very underwhelming, with revenue down at double-digit rates as the group lost market share,” Aarin Chiekrie, an equities analyst at online investment platform Hargreaves Lansdown, said Thursday.
Better news for shareholders came on Wednesday, when the firm negotiated a tentative agreement with the Teamsters union in the United States, preventing a strike by 5,000 workers scheduled to strike at midnight Thursday.
In addition, AB InBev expressed optimism about the outlook for its US business.
“Our beer market share (in the United States) has seen continued gradual improvement since May through the end of December,” according to the report.
Bud Light Boycott Likely Cost Anheuser-Busch InBev Over $1 Billion In Lost Sales
Meanwhile, shares in AB InBev’s Asia unit, Budweiser Brewing Company APAC, finished nearly 7% lower in Hong Kong Thursday, as shareholder earnings fell due to a one-time customs duty in South Korea.
AB-InBev reported that overall sales volumes in China dropped in the fourth quarter, even though premium brand sales increased by double digits.
SOURCE – (CNN)
