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Anheuser-Busch InBev (NYSE:BUD), the multinational brewing company behind
Bud Light, is facing a crisis, and a former executive has offered his perspective on the situation.

"It looks like the battle has already been lost," Anson Frericks, former president of Anheuser Busch Sales & Distribution Co., wrote in a recent
column for the Daily Mail.

In April, Bud Light partnered with transgender social media influencer
Dylan Mulvaney, who has 10.7 million followers on TikTok. The
collaboration triggered a backlash on social media and led some beer
drinkers to boycott Bud Light.

Bud Light sales in the U.S. dropped 28% in the four-week period ended July
1 compared to the previous year, according to consulting company Bump
Williams using data from NielsenIQ.

In light of the marketing fiasco, Bud Light CEO Brendan Whitworth recently said, "As we move forward, we will focus on what we do best — brewing
great beer and earning our place in moments that matter to you."

Frericks doesn't like how Whitworth handled the situation.

"What does that mean? Absolutely nothing. And it will only deepen the
chasm between the brand and its customers," he wrote.

"As such — and I take no pleasure in passing this judgment — it's clear to
me that it's time for the shareholders and board of Anheuser-Busch to ask Whitworth to step down."

There's no personal grudge here. Frericks made it clear that he had a good relationship with Whitworth — the Anheuser-Busch CEO promoted him twice,
and he left on his own terms.

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Shareholders Taking A Hit
Shares of Anheuser-Busch have been impacted as well. Since April 1, when Mulvaney first promoted the beer on social media, the New York Stock Exchange-listed BUD stock has tumbled about 13%, resulting in the loss of billions of dollars of market cap.

That's a huge blow to the company's investors.

Fericks said that asset managers The Vanguard Group, BlackRock Inc. and
State Street Corp. are the largest shareholders in most publicly traded companies. And as a result, they "call the shots" and are "the key
architects of ‘stakeholder' capitalism, with their now infamous ‘diversity
and inclusion' targets."

But according to Fericks, these giant asset managers aren't the real shareholders.

"The real shareholders are the firefighters, police officers and doctors,
whose life-savings — held in pensions and 401(k)s — are managed by these monster firms," he wrote. "These are ordinary Americans — who don't care
for virtue signaling and money-wasting exercises."

Fericks said that these people — the real shareholders — "should feel
entitled to demand a CEO who speaks for them."

And that's why he's calling for a leadership change.

"Whitworth has clearly shown himself to be incapable of solving the
Mulvaney crisis," he wrote. "It's time he did the right thing and stepped
aside to make way for someone capable of righting the sinking Bud Light
ship."

Beer Stocks In The Spotlight
While Bud Light is grappling with declining sales, competitors are seizing
the opportunity to swoop in and grab market share.

According to NielsonIQ data, Bud Light is no longer America's best-selling beer. The top spot now belongs to Modelo Especial, brewed by Constellation Brands Inc. (NYSE:STZ).

Constellation Brands is a leading international producer and marketer of
beer, wine and spirits. Other than Modelo Especial, the company has many
other popular brands, including Corona beer, Robert Mondavi wines and High
West whiskey.

Another company that could benefit from the Bud Light fiasco is Molson
Coors Beverage Co. (NYSE:TAP), which has a portfolio of iconic beer
brands, including Coors Light, Miller Lite, Molson Canadian, Blue Moon and
many others.

If consumers move away from Bud Light, they might opt for Coors Light or
Miller Lite instead.

Anheuser-Busch, Constellation Brands and Molson Coors are all dividend-
paying companies. Beer companies have the potential to be solid dividend
plays because of the resilience of beer sales across economic cycles. But
as demonstrated by recent developments at Anheuser-Busch, beer stocks can
still be volatile.
If you don't like such volatility, you might want to look into reliable
income plays outside the stock market — such as investing in rental
properties with as little as $100 while staying completely hands-off.

endofreason
15 July, 2023

If any CEO implemented a strategy that resulted in a near 30% decline in
sales of the companies flagship product, and in the span of only one
month, they would be be fired or asked to step down immediately. Why not
here? It's a bigger fiasco than New Coke; the biggest blunder in business history. Regardless of anyone's feelings on the subject it is an
unmitigated disaster of marketing.

Wolf Man
15 July, 2023

My wife worked for a small airline in Palm Springs that hired a guy who
dressed up. Everyone went out of their way to accommodate him, everyone
was civil and businesslike, he got his own bathroom (they actually took
away one of the men's room and made it for him), and everyone walked on eggshells to not say the wrong thing. He was an endless fountain of drama, misery, tears, and complaints, with HR having to delicately intervene and prompt him along. He finally quit after 6 months then turned around and
filed a grievance against the airline because he felt 'mistreated'. The
Moral of the Story: The special attention expected by and given to the
Dylan Mulvaney's of this world is counter-productive in every way to
society -- and this nonsense needs to end.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/hes-paralyzed-former-anheuser-busch- 141313745.html

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