Summer is the busiest time of the year for beer sales.
While many companies are starting to see their sales pick up, sales of Anheuser-Busch are in a tailspin.
And Budweiser distributors just broke their silence as sales continue to plunge for the iconic brand.
Bud Light sales drop 28 percent below last year’s numbers
Anheuser-Busch and their many brands have taken a major hit since the company decided to partner with transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney back in April. Now their number-one product, Bud Light, is crashing, with the latest sales figures showing a worsening situation for the company.
It’s been eight weeks since the beer company made the detrimental mistake of hiring Mulvaney, who pushed out daily videos of his first days of “girlhood” for over a year. Marketing executives have said that they were looking to portray a new image to attract younger beer drinkers.
The result was a continuous decline in year-over-year sales for Bud Light, with the most recent numbers showing a 28 percent drop in the week of May 8. The week prior showed a loss of nearly 24 percent from the prior year’s numbers.
One distributor is tired of waiting for Anheuser-Busch to address the issue and decided to take matters into their own hands.
Bama Budweiser says that “the voice of the consumer has been heard” and changes are being made
Following the boycott that has rocked the beer industry, Alabama-based Bama Budweiser has decided that they can’t wait any longer for the iconic company to fix the problem. That’s why they released an ad acknowledging the company’s mistake and trying to reaffirm their commitment to customers.
In the ad, General Manager at Bama Budweiser, Steve Tatum, spoke directly to the customers. “We too at Bama Budweiser are upset about it and have made our feelings known to the top leadership at Anheuser Busch,” he said, before adding that “the voice of the consumer has been heard.”
He challenged the boycott by saying that it portrayed a “distorted story” and added that “Mulvaney is not under contract with Bud Light.” He said that Bud Light drinkers “deserve to know the truth, and life is too short to let a couple of individuals decide what you can eat or drink or spend your hard-earned money on.”
Tatum tried to remind the audience that the company business is “making friends, not enemies.”
Anheuser-Busch tries to save its relationship with distributors as competitors pick up lost sales
Reports are coming out that help explain why distributors are backing Anheuser-Busch and trying to reinforce their claims that the boycott is fueled by misinformation. Anheuser-Busch is said to have made the decision to begin buying back beer from their distributors that is beyond the expiration date.
This may help the company make amends with its distributors, but efforts to patch things up with the customer base have been half-hearted at best. The brand effectively disavowed Dylan Mulvaney by claiming it was decided by an agency without their input.
As their competitors Coors Light and Miller Lite have been picking up their lost sales, the company will need to work harder to earn back consumer trust. According to the latest report, Coors has seen an increase of 17 percent in sales and Miller has picked up 15 percent since the Bud Light boycott began.
Patriot Political will keep you up-to-date on any developments to this ongoing story.
