That’s still a pile of $$. It’s a substantial percentage of their cash flow. It’s almost equal to their 2020 free cash flow.
It’s somewhat absurd and kind of daft to think there is anything positive about that kind of loss. It’s very bad business by any metric. It’s nearly a third of their annualized gross profit too.
Their self-inflicted “cluster F” has jacked with a lot of people and businesses who support Bud Light. Logistical companies, distributors, retailers, etc. Yea, yea, the stock price is groovy for now, but the long-term impact remains to be seen.
As far as a “write off”? I wonder if you have the same understanding of what that is than these folks do:
I never said it was a positive thing. I said if there's going to be a slump, it won't be until July when their 2nd quarter earnings are reported. There's no doubt that they lost sales. But by July, we will be 2 or 3 new shiny things out from this incident, most people will forget all about it. Now, people that think like we do, well, we won't forget and we will likely not ever buy Bud Light again.
As I mentioned previously, I haven't bought Bud Light in many years, simply because it's a crappy beer and I prefer local craft beers when I'm not drinking my own home brew. We're a small but vocal minority, however. That's not to say that mainstream America doesn't share many of our beliefs, just that we have short attention spans and forgive easily. Well, mainstream America, anyhow. Again, you and I are a different breed.
AB Inbev stock will be impacted, just as their sales have been impacted. It will be short lived, however, and they will ultimately make a comeback and they will be just fine.
I would love to see them fail, but as I've asked others, how many companies have been outright shut down due to Conservative boycotts?