Since April of this year, Bud Light has faced a public-relations nightmare after engaging in a disastrous ad campaign with transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney. The beer has faced an ongoing boycott that has severely damaged the company’s brand reputation.
Bud Light’s downfall has created a window of opportunity for its competitors to step up and seize available market share in the beer industry. Constellation Brands, the owner of Modelo beer who recently dethroned Bud Light as the top-selling beer in America, continues to capitalize on its newfound position.
Leadership at Constellation Brands is celebrating the massive rise in sales amid Bud Light’s double-digit decline. Particularly with its Modelo Especial brand, the company has outperformed the broader industry to achieve the title of number-one selling beer in the country.
“Our beer business this year delivered double-digit net sales and operating income growth,” said Constellation Brands CEO Bill Newlands. “Modelo Especial continued to outperform the market as the top share gainer and solidified its position as the number one beer in U.S. tracked channels.”
The American Tribune recently reported on Modelo officially overtaking Bud Light on a market share basis. At the time of the article, Modelo Especial earned 8.34 percent of all dollars spent on beer through August 12. Simultaneously, Bud Light’s market share fell to 8.28 percent.
Modelo had been consistently outselling the woke beer every month and speculation was building that it was only a matter of time before Bud Light officially lost its coveted position. CEO of Bump Williams Consulting Bump Williams said, “While Bud Light loses week after week, Modelo Especial gains week after week, and now Modelo outsells Bud Light on a national basis across all trade channels combined.” He added, “If this continues, Modelo will surpass Bud Light for the year.”
Williams also noted earlier this year, “If Bud Light continues its double-digit declines for the balance of 2023 and Modelo Especial continues to grow at 10% or greater for the balance of the calendar year, then it’s probable that Modelo Especial surpasses Bud Light as the No. 1 selling beer in America on a calendar basis.” As sales data continued to pour in showing the perpetual double-digit declines, Williams noted Modelo would claim the number one spot “a lot sooner than anyone had ever thought.”
Bud Light’s outlook looks so bleak that the heir to the Anheuser-Busch fortune, Billy Busch, has even stepped in, offering to buy back the brand under the original family that built it up to its former status. Busch said, “It’s absolutely a serious offer. My family worked so hard and dedicated so much to build this company over decades. It’s great American history… to see this iconic brand now going in the direction it’s going, it’s really a sad day.”
Busch has noted that his family would be immensely disappointed if they were alive to see the state of the company they had built from the ground up. “I think my family my ancestors would have rolled over in their grave. They were very patriotic. They love this country and what it stood for. They believe that transgender, gays, that sort of thing was all a very personal issue,” the heir said in a TMZ interview.
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