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(Dylan Mulvaney/Instagram)
It’s a tale of two cities, the nation’s #1 and #2 brewers. Anheuser-Busch is still hurting from its short-lived partnership with trans influencer, Dylan Mulvaney, while Molson Coors beer brands are benefiting from it.
Here’s the deal…
These are polarizing times and Bud Light remains in a tailspin following its brief, but ultimately costly, partnership with Dylan Mulvaney, a transgender influencer whose image was put on a Bud Light beer can to celebrate the activist’s “365 Days of Girlhood.”
The initial Dylan Mulvaney announcement took place on April 1 and in spite of Anheuser-Busch’s many efforts to put the matter to bed the brand has been experiencing serious sales declines ever since then.
And now with both companies reporting the Q3 profits and losses it’s clear that Molson Coors, whose beer family includes Coors Light and Miller Lite, is now drawing consumers that have abandoned Anheuser-Busch’s once dominant Bud Light brand.
Molson Coors grabbed more volume share in the US than any brewer, while competitor Anheuser-Busch InBev saw its prolonged declines continue.
Coors Light and Miller Lite are growing dollar sales by double digits in the latest four weeks, while Miller Lite’s share of the industry is up nearly a full point compared to this time last year, even as the brand has begun lapping a period of strong share gains.
On the other hand, AB InBev’s total US portfolio has lost nearly 5 points of total beer dollar share over the last 26 weeks.
Bud Light trends paint an even bleaker picture of continued declines at Anheuser-Busch.
The brand consistently lost nearly 3 points of total beer dollar share in the last four, 13 and 26 weeks, according to Circana a leading consumer analytics firm – including a 2.95-point drop in the last four weeks, more than any other four-week period this year.
“The structural share change to the industry, we believe is going to stick,” Molson Coors CEO Gavin Hattersley told Beer & Beyond. “This isn’t a poll or a possibility. This is the fact as laid out in Circana. We are very confident in the strength of our core brands in the U.S. and Canada. We have a clear plan on how to keep these share gains.”
In the UK, Molson Coors is the best performing brewer in both volume and value share. The company is now the #2 brewer in London, after ranking a distant #5 just a few years ago.
On October 31st Anheuser-Busch reported a 17.1% decline in North American sales volume during the third quarter. This after its North American sales had fallen 14.5% in the prior quarter, when Bud Light lost its title as the best-selling beer in the US to Modelo Especial which is owned by Constellation Brands.
