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 ...
The only problem I see is somebody would have to buy the bud beer to get it off the shelves and that doesn’t appear to be happening!
“3. Announce that the brand is to be buried.nd”
Good option. I personally do not want to be seen walking around with a bud light. No way.
Same in my house also.
I never heard of Yuengling until this tranny disaster with Bud Light unfolded. I don’t think it’s even sold in Alaska. When I drink a beer there are plenty of local beers to choose from. No need to drink corporate horse urine.
Yuengling doesn’t get much west of the Mississippi River except for TX and maybe OK. The do have a distribution deal with Molson Coors so probably will expand.
Look, for the most part American watered down lagers i.e., “light beers” all taste pretty much the same. Trading Butt Light for say, Coors Light, shouldn’t be all that difficult.
When Coors had their brewery in Memphis, they would brew Coors Light (for export only since Coors sold in the states had to use Rocky Mountain spring water) double strength and cut it with water when canning. IDK about the Coors they shipped in. I imagine it was the same. FWIW, Memphis brewed Coors beat out the Colorado stuff in taste tests. We have great lager beer water. Also, the double strength stuff from the layering tanks was great. I wish they would’ve sold that.
But...it was an AB product...so had a glass of red wine instead. All the beer offerings were AB.
They’ll still have Dollar General because everything they sell is AB made.
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