USA: Bud Light off-premise sales down in 1st week of conservative-led boycott

Sales data is out now showing the first week of the conservative-led boycott of Anheuser-Busch InBev’s Bud Light brand following the world’s largest beer maker’s March Madness activation with Dylan Mulvaney, an influencer who documents her life as a transgender woman, Brewbound reported on April 17.

According to off-premise data from market research firm NIQ (formerly NielsenIQ) for the week ending April 8, packages of Bud Light showed accelerating sales and share declines, while Molson Coors’ competing light lager brands Coors Light and Miller Lite showed “a notable uptick” in sales and share, per Dave Williams of Bump Williams Consulting.

“That being said, while the increased declines for Bud Light were apparent, they were also not completely earth shattering in terms of magnitude,” Williams wrote. “Now, this will be interesting to monitor over upcoming weeks to see if this slide continues, but for now it looks to be rough, but not catastrophic.”

For the week ending April 8, Bud Light posted declines in off-premise dollar sales (nearly -7%), volume (-10.7%) and dollar share (-3.7%). By comparison, for the week ending April 1, Bud Light recorded declines in dollar sales (-1.6%), volume (-6.4%), and dollar share (-0.7%), according to NIQ data, shared by Williams.

“On the surface, the trends for Bud Light definitely do show some variance when it comes to sales with some showing sharper declines in the L1W vs. others,” Williams wrote. “On top of just dollar trends though, it’s been Bud Light’s share of [the] premium [segment] for the L1W that tells a pretty consistent story where Bud Light lost share to a more notable degree to its competitors.”

Molson Coors’ light lager challenger brands were both in the black for the week. Coors Light increased dollar sales (+10.7%), volume (+5.5%) and dollar share (+1.5%), while Miller Lite increased dollar sales (+16.9%), volume (+11.7%) and dollar share (+2.3%) for the week ending April 8.

Coors light volume trends flipped to positive during the week, as the brand’s volume had been in the red -4.3% year-to-date, Williams added.

Year-to-date through April 8, Bud Light’s off-premise dollar sales are down -0.4%, volume -5.6%, and dollar share -0.8%, per NIQ data shared by Williams. Coors Light dollar sales are +1.8% while volume declined -4.3%, and dollar share was flat. Miller Lite dollars are +7.4%, volume +1.5% and dollar share +1%.

The data comes with some caveats. This is just one week and only reflects off-premise retailers such as grocery and convenience stores. It also comes on uneven comps as the Easter holiday was a week earlier this year compared to 2023 and this data only includes data up to the Saturday before Easter.

Off-premise volume trends for Bud Light YTD are in the red across all divisions. Only one region bucked those trends for the week ending April 8, as volume increased +2% in the New England region during the week. The brand’s volume trends improved in some regions while declining in others during the week. Dollar trends were more mixed with increased prices in 2023 likely helping offset some of the negative trends.

“The East South Central Division in particular took a big hit, as did the West North Central,” Williams wrote. “The Pacific Division saw the smallest hit, though even that was a change vs. YTD and the P1W.

“I have no doubt that certain regions of the U.S., and even more so certain states/markets saw sharper declines than others and the deeper we dig, the more volatility we see,” he continued. “We’ll be tracking this into next week’s data as well, which would include the Easter holiday weekend (and spring break for some markets).”

The calls to boycott Bud Light were sparked April 1 after Mulvaney posted about receiving commemorative cans of Bud Light with her depiction on the label. The cans were only given to Mulvaney and never offered in retail outlets.

The boycott has been emboldened by multiple conservative figures. However, Donald Trump Jr. on his podcast last week called for an end to any boycott of ABI, noting the company’s donations to GOP candidates.

“I’m not for destroying an American, an iconic company, for something like this,” he said. “The company itself doesn’t participate in the same leftist nonsense as the other big conglomerates”

On April 14, Anheuser-Busch CEO Brendan Whitworth wrote that the company “never intended to be part of a discussion that divides people.”

“We are in the business of bringing people together over a beer,” he wrote in an open letter titled “Our Responsibility to America,” which did not directly mention Mulvaney or calls to boycott the Bud Light brand. Whitworth did not apologize for the company’s actions, nor did he affirm its support of Mulvaney or the LGBTQ community. The letter also did not mention any impact on A-B employees, some of whom have been personally criticized online.

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