The bad news just keeps coming for Bud Light.
It turns out things were even worse for the beer maker than anyone thought.
And this shocking report shows Anheuser-Busch could only keep Bud Light on the shelves by taking one drastic measure.
Anheuser-Busch flooded their beer distributors with some $150 million in “incentive payments” in a blatant effort to keep Bud Light beer on the shelves.
An ongoing payment scheme
According to a report in Beer Marketer’s Insights, Anheuser-Busch is offering as much as $150 million in relief this year alone to beer and liquor distributors.
AB InBev, the parent company of Bud Light, will reportedly provide their distributors with millions in what they are calling “market share recovery incentives.”
The New York Post reported, “There were no further details about the ‘market share recovery incentives,’ but the timing is significant as most retailers revamp their shelf space in the spring when they look at the last 12 months of sales and determine which products are hot and deserve more space — and which will lose space.”
The relief plan is not new; according to the news reports, it was started in June by the brewing giant.
And it’s not over either.
Anheuser-Busch will reportedly continue these incentive payments through the spring in the hopes that distributors will keep Bud Light on shelves instead of replacing it with brands that are actually selling well.
“Bud Light is set to lose refrigerator space at a vast network of stores belonging to key beer sellers like Walmart and 7-Eleven, since the retailers typically reapportion shelf space based on recent sales performance, taking space away from struggling brands and giving it to hot-selling ones,” beer industry sources told ABC News in September.
A ripple effect
And former Anheuser-Busch InBev executive Anson Frericks told ABC News shelf space is “the single largest determinant of sales in a store.”
“During a busy shopping period on a Friday or Saturday night, if you don’t have the beer available cold on the shelf, consumers pick something else,” Frericks said. “There will be a dramatic shift.”
Dave Williams, the Vice President of analytics and insights at Bump Williams Consulting agreed, adding, “There’s explosive growth on one side and sharp decline on the other. This does have that ripple effect where if Bud Light loses space on the shelf, that could make it a longer-term endeavor to claw back to where they were if they’re ever able to do that in the first place.”
In July, after years at the top of the beer world, Bud Light dropped not just out of the top spot but completely out of the top ten.
It turns out American beer drinkers didn’t buy into the woke transgender agenda the beer giant decided to promote with its Dylan Mulvaney marketing disaster.
In the second quarter of 2023, Bud Light had dropped to the 14th-ranked beer, tied with Pabst Blue Ribbon.
Anheuser-Busch’s decision to wade into the culture wars by promoting the radical LGBT trans agenda has cost it dearly.
Bud Light and the Anheuser-Busch parent company have seen drastically declining sales, revenue, and market share and have been forced to lay off hundreds of employees and even sell off some of its breweries.
24/7 Politics will keep you up-to-date on any developments to this ongoing story.
