The heir to Anheuser-Busch says his family will buy back Bud Light from its parent company, if they are looking to offload the brand following months of falling sales.
Billy Busch, whose family sold Anheuser-Busch to InBev in 2008, said he would be ‘first in line’ to buy back Bud Light and ‘make that brand great again.’
Busch pitched the deal on an episode of conservative pundit Tomi Lahren’s show ‘Fearless.’
The offer comes nearly five months after Anheuser-Busch’s disastrous partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney, which led to a massive boycott and a $27billion decrease in the company’s market cap.
In 2008, the Busch family sold the company to InBev – a Belgian company – for a staggering $52billion.
Bud Light sales have declined precipitously since April, when a disastrous partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney triggered a boycott
Busch’s offer comes nearly five months after Anheuser-Busch’s disastrous partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney, which led to a massive boycott and a $27billion decrease in the company’s market cap
Soon after Bud Light’s April partnership with Mulvaney to celebrate her transition to being a woman, conservative groups started to boycott the brand.
Infamously, Alissa Heinerscheid, the marketing executive who made the decision to partner with Mulvaney, also gave an interview during which she said the brand wanted to pivot away from its ‘frat house’ base of drinkers.
Lahren questioned Busch about those remarks, to which he said: ‘I think InBev doesn’t understand who their core drinker is. It’s a Brazilian-based company that really doesn’t live here in America.’
Adding that ‘it’s a big mistake’ to ignore the ‘fratty drinker,’ and mocking the company for disobeying the tenets of its own inclusivity mandate.
He said when his family ran things, Anheuser-Busch forged important bonds with its customers, including distributors and liquor store owners.
‘They knew who their drinkers were. They were with the bar owners and the restaurant owners and the liquor store owners and talking to these people day in and day out,’ he said.
‘Even my dad at 89 years old, 90 years old, he was still going to the bars selling Budweiser back in those days, in the ’80s.’
He added InBev’s big mistake was hiring and relying on a new generation of ‘woke’ students to run the company’s marketing department.
‘When you are a foreign company and you rely on these woke students that are coming out of these woke colleges to do your advertising for you, you’re making a big mistake.’
‘You need to go out there and understand who your core customer is.’
He continued by saying he would buy back the company in order to save it from its ongoing downward spiral.
‘I urge that company, InBev, if they don’t want that brand any longer, sell it back to the Busch family. Sell it to me. I’ll be the first in line to buy that brand back from you. And we’ll make that brand great again,’ he said.
‘When you are a foreign company and you rely on these woke students that are coming out of these woke colleges to do your advertising for you, you’re making a big mistake,’ Busch said
Earlier this month, Anheuser-Busch blamed the ‘volume decline’ of Bud Light for the $390 million drop in US revenue in its second quarter – with figures showing that total US revenue dropped by 10.5 percent in the April-to-June period compared to a year earlier.
The world’s largest brewer said in early August that sales to US retailers had plunged 14 percent, adding that the brand had been ‘underperforming the industry.’ The drop-off is a direct result of the tie-in with Mulvaney.
For the second quarter of 2022, Anheuser Busch sold $2.73 billion worth of beer to retailers. But for the second quarter of 2023, sales dropped to $2.35 billion – a slump of $390 million in a year.
In a statement, the company attributed the declining sales to the backlash they faced for partnering with Mulvaney, 26, and issuing her a one-of-a-kind can to celebrate ‘365 days of girlhood.
The promotion triggered outrage among drinkers, who accused Bud Light of trying to force progressive beliefs on them and their favorite brand.
For the second quarter of 2023, AB sales dropped to $2.35 billion – a year-over-year slump of $390 million
Mulvaney broke her silence on the controversy over her infamous partnership with the embattled beer brand and said the brand never reached out
Earlier this month, Busch said his ancestors would be ‘rolling in their graves‘ if they saw the backlash against the brand.
‘I think my family – my ancestors would have rolled over in their graves,’ Busch said when asked by longtime TMZ boss Harvey Levin about what he thought of the fallout.
‘They believed that transgender, um, gays, that sort of thing was all a very personal issue,’ he continued, speaking for pioneering figures like his dad August, who served as chairman between 1946 and 1975, and Adolphus, the Missouri magnate who cooked up the first batch of Budweiser way back in 1876.’
Mulvaney has also spoken out against the brand saying they left her hanging as she became the target of the backlash.
Speaking to her 1.8million followers Mulvaney said: ‘I was waiting for the brand to reach out to me, but they never did. I’ve been scared to leave my house.
Speaking to her 1.8million followers earlier Thursday, Mulvaney said: ‘I was waiting for the brand to reach out to me, but they never did. I’ve been scared to leave my house.