Posted on 06/03/2023 3:07:19 PM PDT by Libloather
If Bud Light sales continue to lag, the brand risks losing shelf space at major retailers to competitors and 'locking in' lower market share, a former Anheuser-Busch executive has claimed.
In recent weeks, Bud Light sales have been down roughly a quarter from a year ago, as the brand faces conservative backlash over an April marketing deal with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
Anson Frericks, the former US president of sales and distribution for St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch, said that retailers such as Walmart and Kroger typically 'reset' their shelf space allocations in the spring and fall, based on sales data.
For the fall reset in September, 'they generally take sales data from April, May, June, July, and then based off of that data in that time period, they will reallocate shelf space,' he told DailyMail.com in a phone interview on Saturday.
If Bud Light sales continue to slump, 'that shelf space will be allocated to Miller Lite, Coors Light, Yuengling, and some of the other brands that have that have taken share from them,' he said.
'Those brands will have a better likelihood to succeed longer term, because they have more shelf space, they have more inventory, they have more back-stock, and they have more availability for consumers,' he argued.
'That almost permanently then locks in this as the new norm of where their sales will be, and what their share of the beer category will be,' Frericks predicted of the impact on Bud Light.
Frericks said that the 'vast majority' of beer sales, some 80 to 90 percent, occur at traditional retail outlets, as opposed to sales at bars and restaurants.
Frericks, who co-founded Strive Asset Management with longshot Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy after leaving A-B last year, has been harshly critical of his former employer's handling...
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
What you said there definatly bears repeating,,,
Showing the old time red neck in me though…. On a damn hot day in OK or TX,an iced down long neck of Coors or Lone Star really can't be topped. Especially if something off the grill or smoker or crawfish boiler are involved. Love me some Cajun crawfish boils.
Lol!
Bud Light = Possum Beer
Plays dead at home
Gets killed on the road
Straight question: Can you put yourself into the shoes of the exec responsible for fixing this mess and think out loud about possible steps to make such a fix?
As a writer, I like to invent impossible problems to solve, and this is better than many I can imagine. My own thoughts:
1. Cut your losses. Disavow Dylan and the original brand manager. Bad beer is not even an LGBTQ concern. There are no consumers there. These are Angry Orchard folks.
2. Apologize. (Should be #1.)
3. Announce that the brand is to be buried. Yes, kill Bud Light so you can save your other brands.
4. Invent an alternative to light beer, something with actual flavor. Maybe even some color.
5. Launch it a couple years from now. Heavy appeal to the “fratty” types.
6. Give the inventory away. Maybe to Canada. Or the Pentagon. The SecDef’d take it.
Your thoughts?
BOO FREAKING HOO!
They’ve been taking on water for years. Over all beer sales in this country have been dropping at nearly 3% a year. BUT craft and import beer sales have been growing at a little over 2% a year. Which means what’s really shrinking is the big dogs. This is why they keep trying to find “new” markets with various ad gimmicks. Really they need to reboot, all their beers suck, they need to admit it, and make better beers. Worked pretty well for Domino’s, although their pizza still isn’t very good, but better than it was and so are sales.
Trump should be boycotting Bud Light, or his followers should be boycotting him.
Of course, neither will happen.
Good points. They ought to at least fake the taste of a craft beer, eh?
Don’t buy Miller and Coors either or any of the other AB products, such as Michelob. Let that company wither and die.
These big multinational companies who have bought up an bullied smaller brewers need to be out of business.
Later dudes
At least just be good. Honestly step 1 would probably be to resurrect the original Budweiser recipe, which they own, and haven’t used in decades. By legend it’s pretty good.
What about the microbrewery and small nonwoke companies like Yuengling.
Years ago I tried Yuengeling and that was it for Bud. Never drank Bud light. Couldn’t figure out why anyone did.
*and bullied
You are correct sir
And if you cant go local go generic
Starve the natl name brands
They are all shoving woke down our throats
Exactly...support your local brewery....
Beer sales are all about shelf space. I’m sure much of it is paid for, so not sure how this will impact AB. Probably depends on the retailer.
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