Steep drops in demand for Bud Light accelerated ahead of the crucial Fourth of July weekend — and parent Anheuser-Busch’s other beer brands also took a turn for the worse, according to the latest data.
Bud Light sales plunged 28.5% for the week ended July 1 — slightly worse than the 27.9% decline they suffered the previous week — as the nation’s No. 1 beer brand continues to take a beating over its ill-fated partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
To make matters worse, Bud Light’s woes recently appear to have “infected” its sister brands at Anheuser Busch, according to Bump Williams, whose eponymous consulting firm crunched the latest numbers from NielsenIQ.
Sales of Michelob Ultra — the nation’s No. 3 beer last year — were down by 4.3% in the week ended July 1 while Busch Light sales were down 8.5%, according to the Bump Williams Consulting and NielsonIQ data.
“Budweiser trends have been slipping for a very long time, but it’s the Michelob Ultra negative numbers and now Busch Light negative trends that are most alarming to me,” Williams told The Post. “They were very healthy prior to April 1.”
Meanwhile, Modelo Especial, the No. 2 beer brand in the US, saw its sales jump 11.4% during the week ended July 1. The rival brew could overtake Bud Light before the close of the year if the brands continue on their current trajectories, Williams said.
“The gap between Modelo Especial and Bud Light on a year-to-date basis is closing,” Williams said
Bud Light brand commands an 8.7% share of the beer market year-to-date with Modelo Especial creeping up from behind with a an 8.1% share over the same time period. Modelo is an Anheuser-Busch brand, but rival brewer Constellation Brands distributes the beer in the US. It has been outselling Bud Light on a weekly basis since May.
The backlash to Bud Light’s Mulvaney posts occurred almost immediately and have outlasted most boycotts over social issues.
Other beer brands have been able to grab market share as well, particularly over the July 4 holiday weekend with some New England stores stores selling out of Yuengling, Miller Lite, Coors Light and Modelo Especial, while Anheuser-Busch brands languished on shelves, Williams, who is based in Connecticut, noted.
[Written in collaboration with other media outlets with information from the following sources]
