FOX Business’ Lydia Hu opens up about the fallout from Bud Light’s controversial partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
Bud Light, which continues to face consumer backlash, experienced another seven-day period of declining U.S. sales in the last full week of May.
For the week ended May 27, NielsenIQ data provided by Bump Williams Consulting to FOX Business showed that Bud Light saw sales decline 23.9% on a dollar basis from a year ago. According to the data, sales of the Anheuser-Busch-owned brand are down 24.5% over the past four weeks.
FOX Business has reached out to Anheuser-Busch for comment.
Bud Light and parent company Anheuser-Busch have faced backlash since early April when the company made custom cans for transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney. Some beer drinkers have announced that they will boycott the brand.
Bud Light and parent company Anheuser-Busch have faced backlash since early April when the company made custom cans for transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
However, compared to the previous week, Bud Light saw a smaller drop in the week ended May 27th. According to data from NielsenIQ and Bump Williams Consulting, the brand saw its sales fall 25.7% year over year in the week ended May 20.
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Bump Williams, CEO of Bump Williams Consulting, told FOX Business on Tuesday that the weekly slowdown was due to a “combination of things.”
“I think a lot of Anheuser-Busch dealers have worked extraordinarily hard to convey to their local communities that it wasn’t their fault,” he said. “And once they made it clear that this wasn’t on their minds, I think their strong retail and local community relationships began to resonate.”
Another factor that contributed to the decline in Bud Light sales from 25.6% to 23.9% between the weeks ended May 20 and 27, according to Williams, was that retailers “continued to buy the Anheuser-Busch portfolio.” marketed”.
A Bud Light sign outside a bar in New York City. (Roberto Machado Noa/LightRocket via Getty Images / Getty Images)
“I think the strength of AB retailers and of course the national AB retail team reaching out to the chains has kept those displays up there,” he said, noting that from 2022 the brand will too going up against “some really strong competitors” during Memorial Day week.
He also credited the discount Bud Light offered for Memorial Day purchases, a move he says “has helped a lot with some consumer purchases.”
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Bud Light’s Memorial Day rebate ensured customers in eligible states could “get up to $15 back” when they purchased certain Bud Light or Budweiser products. According to the brand’s website, it ran from May 17-31.
“That pricing incentive, that coupon, firstly, it got people’s attention and secondly, it may have lured the consumer back into the portfolio because they’re struggling with the tough economy,” Williams told FOX Business.
That doesn’t mean Bud Light’s problem is “over,” Williams said, noting that it’s “just an improvement from last week.”
If Bud Light continues to see a 20% drop in sales in the weeks leading up to July 4, Williams said some retailers “will be forced to start reallocating shelf space to other brands.”
BUD-LIGHT parent ANHEUSER-BUSCH sees $27 billion down as shares near bear market
According to Bump Williams Consulting’s NielsenIQ data, sales of Miller Lite, Coors Light and Yuengling Traditional Lager rose in dollar terms for the week ended May 27.
Miller Lite and Coors Light are owned by Chicago-based Molson Coors.
| ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BEAT | MOLSON COORS BEVERAGE CO. | 65.13 | +1.33 | +2.08% |
Data showed that sales of Yuengling Traditional Lager rose 31.3% in the four weeks ended May 27. Miller Lite and Coors Light sales increased 21.3% and 23.5%, respectively, during the period.
According to NielsenIQ data provided, Bud Light’s market share in its sub-segment for the 21 weeks ended May 27 was 35.4% by revenue.
It’s “highly unlikely” that Bud Light will stop being the top-selling beer in the US, but it’s not impossible, Williams told FOX Business. (Jason Kempin/Getty Images for Bud Light/Getty Images)
It’s “highly unlikely” that Bud Light will stop being the top-selling beer in the US, but it’s not impossible, Williams told FOX Business. He noted that in the past four weeks, Modelo Especial has “overtaken Bud Light as the best-selling brand in the country.”
Other types of alcoholic beverages could be helped by the fact that Bud Light has been losing customers in recent weeks.
BUD LIGHT GAME TO REALLY GROW, SELTZERS: ANALYST
Truly and other Boston Beer Company hard seltzer will see a rebound in the summer due to Bud Light’s loss of market share, a senior analyst at Roth MKM wrote in a note last week. He said the “substitutability between Bud Light and seltzer should increase,” along with warmer summer temperatures.
| ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BUD | ANHEUSER-BUSCH INBEV | 54.93 | +0.76 | +1.39% |
| SAM | BOSTON BEER CO. INC. | 334.92 | -5.48 | -1.61% |
As of Tuesday night, Anheuser-Busch InBev’s stock price is down about 15% from where it was a month ago.