Sales of Hamm's up as economy continues it's slow train wreck into oblivion!
Posted on 05/07/2014 4:10:36 AM PDT by Olog-hai
The maker of Budweiser and Stella Artois beer says its first quarter net profit slumped by almost 24 percent despite rising sales volumes.
AB InBev SA, the largest global brewer, said Wednesday net profit fell to $1.4 billion in the January through March period from $1.8 billion in the same quarter a year earlier. …
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Well duh, they sold out to the Dutch, and AMERICANS don’t appreciate that.
And the beer is crap. Young people don’t appreciate bad beer
Young people have flocked in droves to microbrews and home brewing. I worked with a handful of guys younger than me (I’m 34), and the home brew/micro craze is unreal.
Budweiser is going to end up like Schlitz, Old Milwaukee, and PBR. Hell, even college kids these days are turning up their noses to Bud Light from a keg which is something I swore I’d never see in my lifetime.
The last guy I knew that drank Bud was a retired knee-deep sailor. Said he drank it because that was the one beer you could find anywhere in the world. But he passed five years ago; kinda thought AB would have noticed the decline in sales very shortly after his passing.
Belgium, not Holland.
The company says revenues rose to $10.6 billion from $9.2 billion last year. In the United States its beer sales grew by 2 percent to 27,000 hectoliters, representing about a quarter of global sales.
I'd guess the price of grain and trucking went up, just as our food and energy prices have..
Apart from selling out to foreign investors, could it be the 97 different flavors, styles, and nuances of beer they now sell?
Just sayin’
Budweiser, Michelob, each in a full flavor and a lite. Worked for years.
Their response will be dumping employee healthcare to Obamacare.
Yes, likely a combination of factors: consumer tastes are changing as far as beer is concerned (more micro-breweries), certainly many commodity costs are rising.
But also, InBev can be accused of having a particular disregard for its own consumers. From 2012:
"And he’s (InBev's CEO) risking the devotion of American beer lovers by fiddling with the Budweiser recipe in the name of cost-cutting."
The Plot to Destroy America's Beer:
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-10-25/the-plot-to-destroy-americas-beer
They had more than 10% growth in gross sales over last year. That doesn’t indicate to me that tastes are changing.
When my 20 something boys come over, they always bring beers to sample and taste. They NEVER bring a Bud. I never drank Bud, but Bud has become Grandpa's beer.
Pabst Blue Ribbon has been revived as a hip PBR - because it is so cheap. I don't know how Bud survives or rebrands itself.
InBev has been busy for several years buying up many other regional or former micro-breweries. So, I'm not surprised that gross sales are up for the company holding that stock ticker.
Consumer tastes are changing, however...bad beer simply isn't tolerated the way it used to be. Otherwise they could just chug along and keep growing with witty light beer commercials alone like they used to.
And I should add: watering down their formula's soon after the purchase.
It encountered more resistance in 2005 when it closed the brewery in the Belgian village of Hoegaarden, from which the popular white beer of the same name flowed. InBev said it could no longer afford to keep the brewery open. After two years of protests by brewery workers and beer aficionados, it reversed itself. Laura Vallis, an AB InBev spokeswoman, says Hoegaarden exports spiked unexpectedly. “The brand’s growth since is positive news for Hoegaarden and for consumers around the world who enjoy it,” she says.
"Yet some Hoegaarden drinkers say the flavor of the beer changed. “I think now it’s not as distinctive tasting,” says Iain Loe, spokesman for the Campaign for Real Ale, an advocacy group for pubs and beer drinkers. “You often see when a local brand is taken over by a global brewer, the production is raised a lot. If you’re trying to produce a lot of beer, you don’t want a beer that some people may object to the taste of it, so you may actually make the taste a little blander.”
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-10-25/the-plot-to-destroy-americas-beer#p2
Mr. Coffee made a good cup. The key is to use 100% Arabica beans, and grind them just before brewing.
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