Posted originally on the CTH on May 3, 2023 | Sundance 

Here we go.  Hard data is now starting to surface showing the devastating impact of the Anheuser-Busch decision to rebrand Budweiser products as the beer for the transgender community.   The #1 and #2 best selling beers in the United States are now fully rebranded to consumers and destroyed.  Now we see the ramifications.

The irony of Budweiser creating the “born on” date and freshness date system in the beer industry is just too damned funny, here’s why.

Across the United States, wholesalers are on the hook for inventories of Bud Light and Budweiser products that no one is buying.  These products have an expiration date, thanks in part to the previously mentioned freshness campaign long ago created.  The wholesalers have to swap out the close-dated products that are not being sold in retailers and restaurants.  The wholesalers are then stuck with out-of-date product, and turn back to the corporate office for help.

From reporting in the Wall Street Journal, Anheuser-Busch (A/B) is telling the wholesalers to give the product free to their employees rather than dump it.  By law, they cannot give it away to consumers, and they cannot cross promote the beer by “bundling” alcohol with another CPG product (ie, buy chips, get free beer).

The story is being promoted as A/B being magnanimous in giving the beer to the employees; however, in reality as the product hits its expiration or sell-by date, A/B only has that option, other than to dump it in the garbage and recycle the containers.  There is so much unsold inventory, data below, they are now giving it away (lol).

DATA – “In the week ended April 22, Bud Light’s U.S. retail-store sales fell 21.4% compared with the year-earlier period, according to an analysis of Nielsen data by Bump Williams Consulting. Meanwhile, sales of rival brands Coors Light and Miller Lite each grew about 21%.”  It’s not just Bud Light collapsing, it’s the faceplate brands for all Budweiser products. “Sales of other Anheuser-Busch brands declined, too, including Budweiser, Busch Light and Michelob Ultra, according to Bump Williams.”

At a cursory glance you might think a 21.4% sales drop is not as significant as you would think or hope.  However, that doesn’t fully tell the entire story.

Keep in mind, this data is only the initial evaluation of year-over-year sales impact, and this data is national. Regionally, where the beer drinking is heaviest, the amount of sales loss is much higher.

Bud Light and Bud are the #1 and #2 products across the entire beer industry.  Within the A/B wholesaler’s sales book, those two brands likely represent well over half of all their retail beer sales combined (‘well over’, and I’m being generously low in the estimate).

It depends on the region and wholesaler product mix, but Bud and Bud Light easily make up more than half of the specific portfolio of distributor gross product sales.

When the #1 and #2 products that consist of more than half your gross revenue drop by 20 to 25%, essentially the value of your company has just dropped by the same percentage.   A $50 million beer distributorship, now worth $40 million and falling fast.

Additionally, and worse still for the parent company, the sales of the competitor products have increased by the same amount as the collapse in the targeted brand.  Coors Light and Miller Lite have picked up all the customers.   This is what’s known as a “hard brand switch;” meaning it’s likely to be very difficult – if not impossible – to regain brand position.

A/B just gave Coors and Miller brands their biggest sales increase in history, and that increase is likely permanent as beer drinkers solidify brand use.  This is why you are starting to see such urgent action in response by the U.S. parent company AB Inbev.    However, Bud and Bud Light have created a no-win position, as they are now being targeted by the transgender community activists for failing to support their Tranny Beer rebranding effort strongly enough.

[Washington, The Hill] “In a letter sent this week to Anheuser-Busch’s head of human resources, Jay Brown, a senior vice president at the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, slammed the company’s response to the controversy as insufficient and cowardly.  “In this moment, it is absolutely critical for Anheuser-Busch to stand in solidarity with Dylan and the trans community,” reads the April 26 letter obtained by The Hill.

“However, when faced with anti-LGBTQ+ and transphobic criticism, Anheuser-Busch’s actions demonstrate a profound lack of fortitude in upholding its values of diversity, equity, and inclusion to employees, customers, shareholders and the LGBTQ+ community.”  […] According to the HRC letter, the group is preparing to lower Anheuser-Busch’s long-standing 100 percent Corporate Equality Index score, a national benchmarking tool on corporate policies, practices and benefits relevant to LGBTQ employees. (read more)

As noted in the Wall Street Journal, “They didn’t need to take this risk,” one distributor said, adding that he was worried the brand might now swing back in the other direction. “I lost my cowboy bars and now I could lose my gay bars, too.”  – Sorry, but this is just too darned funny.

Bud and Bud Light beer inventories are piling up.  The product is now going out of date due to lack of sales.  Beer drinkers do not want to be viewed with weird side-eye looks if they pick up a Budweiser product in a bar.  Retail consumers are walking past the product.   Regional wholesalers, seeing their distributorships being destroyed, are calling the home office looking for help.

Meanwhile, the alphabet activists are stomping their feet and riding their bicycles in slow circles at the bottom of the Anheuser Bush corporate offices, glaring in the windows while telling Budweiser they need to worry about their feelings.   {{{I cannot stop laughing}}}

[…] Anheuser-Busch has declined several meeting requests from [Human Rights Council] in the wake of right-wing pushback over its partnership with Mulvaney, according to an individual with knowledge of the situation. Anheuser-Busch did not immediately respond to The Hill’s request for comment.

The letter also recommends that Anheuser-Busch meet with its LGBTQ employees to discuss and “understand their concerns” and conduct workplace transgender inclusion training for company executives.” (link)

Anheuser Bush’s solution?

Screw it… we’re f**ked, just give it away!

[Wall Street Journal]