TheQuartering [5/23/2023]
Bud Light just suffered one of its worst weeks yet amid the Dylan Mulvaney disaster, with sales plunging over 24% for the week ending in May 13 compared to the same week last year.
That’s worse than last week — which some believed was the first sign of the ongoing Bud Light boycott loosening its grip. However, numbers tanked again most recently, according to Bump Williams consulting, which pointed to a larger issue in its analysis.
“Bud Light is ‘sick,’” Williams said. “It’s now infected other healthy brands with the InBev portfolio and that’s a bigger problem in my mind.
“If Bud Light doesn’t stop the bleeding now, [it] runs the risk of losing the entire three months of the high demand for beer.”
Whoooooof. Not the best way to start a Monday.
While Bud Light sales continue to plummet around the country as we near the two-month mark of the Mulvaney disaster, the fallout is now spreading like a wildfire under the Anheuser-Busch umbrella.
Michelob Ultra sales were down 2.9% versus a year ago according to Williams’ analysis of Nielsen IQ data, while Budweiser has been down nearly 10% each of the past two weeks.
Apparently, the new Harley-Davidson cans haven’t worked.
Elsewhere, Busch Light was down nearly 7% after being down just 0.3% the previous week, while Natural Lights were down nearly 3%.
Look away, Bud Light fanatics — it gets worse. Somehow.
The nation’s top-selling beer brand has lost $110 million in sales volume year-to-date compared to the same period last year, according to Williams, while the number of Bud Light cases sold was down 28.4%.
Yikes.
And if you think the folks over at Coors are feeling bad for their competitors, think again. Coors Light was up a staggering 23.2% last week, while Modelo went from a 5% to 10% increase over the past two weeks.