More than four months after Bud Light’s marketing blunder, the beer brand remains in the spotlight. Now Billy Bosch, heir to the Anheuser-Bosch dynasty, is making an intriguing offer for Bud Light’s parent company, Anheuser-Busch Inbif SA (NYSE: BUD).
“I urge that company, InBev, if you don’t want this brand anymore, to sell it back to the Busch family. Sell it to me. I’ll be the first to buy this brand from you again. We’ll make this,” he said during a presentation by Tommy Lahren. The brand is great again.”
In 2008, Belgian-Brazilian brewer InBev acquired Anheuser-Busch for $52 billion, creating a new company called Anheuser-Busch InBev.
In April 2023, Bud Light partnered with transgender social media influencer Dylan Mulvaney. While Mulvaney has 10.7 million followers on TikTok, the collaboration sparked a backlash on social media and prompted some beer drinkers to boycott Bud Light.
According to consulting firm Bump Williams, using data from NielsenIQ, Bud Light is no longer the best-selling beer in America. The first place now belongs to Modelo Especial, which is brewed by Constellation Brands Inc (NYSE: STZ).
Bush criticized Bud Light’s parent company for hiring students to run its marketing department.
“When you’re a foreign company and you rely on these awake students coming out of these faculties to do your advertising for you, you’re making a big mistake,” he said. “You need to get out there and understand who your core customer is.”
paying off:
repercussions of fermentation
Bud Light’s failure had consequences for the company’s financial condition.
According to Anheuser-Busch InBev’s latest earnings report, the company’s US revenue fell 10.5% year over year in the second quarter.
In the first half of this year, the beer giant’s sales to US wholesalers fell 8.5%, while sales to retailers fell 9.2%. The company said its underperformance in the industry was “primarily due to Bud Light’s lower volume.”
Shareholders have also felt the impact.
Since April 1, when Mulvaney first promoted the beer on social media, shares of New York Stock Exchange-listed Anheuser-Busch InBev have fallen about 15%, losing billions of dollars in market value.
For investors, the decline in Anheuser-Busch InBev shares is a reminder of the unpredictable nature of the stock market. Even well-established brands with a large market presence are not immune to sudden shifts in market perception and valuation.
If you don’t like this kind of volatility, you may want to look into reliable income operations outside of the stock market – eg Invest in rented real estate with an amount of at least $100 While staying completely away.
Will he buy it again?
In a recent interview with Fox Business, host Stuart Varney asked Bush if his offer to buy back the brewing business was serious.
Bush replied, “It’s quite a serious offer.”
Bud Light sales decline could provide Busch with an opportunity to get a good deal.
“I haven’t made an offer at this point, but I’m sure it’s probably worth, at this point, pennies on the dollar. I don’t see InBev making money on it right now. It might cost them money. So, maybe they really might be able to give me Great price to buy from them.”
Bush added that he had been in contact with the investment banks, and they told him they would be “there in line” to help with the potential buyback.
Bud Light is fighting an uphill battle, so even if Busch buys back the company, he still has to convince beer drinkers to return to the brand.
Bush indicated that if he regained control of Anheuser-Busch’s brands, he would revert to the way his family advertises the company.
“That is, bringing back the values on which it was built. Those values were strength, and it was pride, quality, honor – what this country is fundamentally built on. It was also built on having fun and having fun and bringing people together. And it was never about paying political agenda down your throat.”
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This article ‘Make this brand great again’: Anheuser-Busch heir Billy Bush wants to buy the Bud Light Back, and criticizes the company for using ‘awake students’ to do the marketing. Will that really happen? originally appeared on Benzinga.com
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