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The world’s largest beer maker may have already lost as much as $1.4 billion in slumping sales because of backlash over its partnership with a transgender influencer to promote Bud Light beer, CNN estimated.
Anheuser-Busch InBev said its “growth potential is limited” by its US business, where sales were hit by a boycott of Bud Light over a sponsored Instagram post featuring Dylan Mulvaney.
In North America, organic revenue fell $1.4 billion last year as beer sales by volume collapsed in the region, mainly due to a decline in sales of Bud Light in the United States. Beer accounts for the lion’s share of Anheuser-Busch InBev’s revenue.
Bud Light sales have fallen since the company’s partnership with Dylan Mulvaney last April sparked calls for a boycott.
Modelo Especial dethroned Bud Light the following month as America’s best-selling beer, a title the brand had held for more than two decades.
From May to February, Bud Light recovered just 1.2 percentage points of lost market share, Chief Executive Officer Michel Duqueris told investors on Thursday. The pace of recovery is accelerating, he said, but is still only 0.1 to 0.2 percentage points every three to four weeks.
“It’s not at the rapid pace we expected or worked for. But still, progress is there,” he added.
Some analysts were unimpressed with the recovery announced by the company so far.
“In the US, performance remains very weak, with revenue declining at double-digit rates as the group lost market share,” commented Aarin Chikri, equity analyst at online investment platform Hargreaves Lansdown.
The company reached a tentative agreement with the Teamsters union in the United States, averting a strike by 5,000 workers who were set to walk out at midnight on Thursday.
