One of the heirs to the family that founded Anheuser-Busch criticizes parent company Bud Light for a marketing partnership with a transgender influencer that cost sales.
Billy Busch, whose family sold Anheuser-Busch to InBev for $52 billion in 2008, took aim at the brewery’s American CEO, Brendan Whitworth, in an interview. News Nation on Wednesday.
“I understand that the Bud Light drinker is your working-class, mainly your working-class, hard-working American who really doesn’t want to push that kind of message down their throats,” Busch said.
“I mean, sure, be inclusive, but don’t put on the can that everyone is going to drink and expect… the main Bud Light drinker to respond positively to it,” he added.
Since early April, Bud Light sales have suffered conservative backlash and boycotts after the brand sent a commemorative can to transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
Billy Busch, whose family sold Anheuser-Busch to InBev for $52 billion in 2008, took aim at the brewery’s American CEO, Brendan Whitworth, in a new interview.
Mulvaney’s Instagram post from April included how she drank a beer with her face pressed to the can and lay in a bathtub knocking Bud over the back
Contrary to Busch’s suggestion, the cans with Mulvaney’s image were not available for sale to the public and were made as a one-time gift to the influencer as part of a marketing partnership.
Billy Busch, 62, is one of 10 children born to Augustus “Gussie” Busch Jr., who served as chairman of Anheuser-Busch from 1946 to 1975 and whose grandfather Adolphus Busch founded the brewery.
Billy Busch told News Nation that he has not heard from AB InBev about its offer in recent interviews to buy back the St. Louis brewery from its multinational parent company.
“I would be willing to buy back the brands,” Busch said. “I haven’t heard from them yet.”
An Anheuser-Busch spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment from DailyMail.com Thursday morning.
Earlier this month, Bud Light’s parent company expressed confidence that its market share in the US has stabilized after the Mulvaney promotion cost it sales.
AB Inbev reported that sales in the US fell 10.5 percent in the second quarter from April to June, following the partnership with Mulvaney in early April.
In an interview last month, Anheuser-Busch’s US CEO Whitworth denied that the partnership with Mulvaney was a “mistake”
Billy Busch, one of the heirs to the waning Anheuser-Busch fortune, has expressed his disapproval of his old firm’s failed partnership with Dylan Mulvaney
Billy Busch is one of 10 children of Augustus “Gussie” Busch Jr., who served as president of Anheuser-Busch from 1946 to 1975 and whose grandfather Adolphus Busch founded the brewery.
The company said overall U.S. market share for all brands fell more than 5 percent to 36.9 percent in April, but then held steady from the end of April to the end of June.
Some of the company’s brands, such as Busch Lite and Michelob Ultra, have gained market share in the US.
Still, the Bud Light saga has been a costly affair for the brewer. In June, Bud Light lost its place as America’s best-selling beer after more than two decades, dropping to second place behind Mexican lager Modelo Especial.
InBev also owns Modelo, but in the US the brand is imported and sold by Constellation Brands, and not credited to InBev’s global sales.
In the month ending July 22, Bud Light retail sales in the US fell 26 percent compared to the same period a year ago, according to Nielsen data compiled by Bump Williams Consulting.
Year-over-year sales declines have been between 25 and 30 percent each month since the start of the downturn, the consulting firm said.
Michel Doukeris, InBev’s global CEO, said during an earnings call that the company plans to provide financial assistance to US wholesalers through the end of December to make up for lost sales of Bud Light.
But he also said that internal polls show that 80 percent of American consumers are positive or neutral about the brand.
AB Inbev reported second-quarter US sales fell 10.5 percent from April to June following its partnership with Mulvaney in early April
In an interview last month, Whitworth, the American CEO of Anheuser-Busch, denied that the partnership with Mulvaney was a “mistake.”
“No, Bud Light has been supporting LGBTQ since 1998,” CBS Mornings told me. “So that’s 25 years and as we’ve said from the beginning, we’ll continue to support the communities and organizations that we’ve supported for decades.”
But Mulvaney has also spoken out against the brand, saying they left her hanging when she became the target of anti-LGBTQ backlash.
Speaking to her 1.8 million followers, Mulvaney said, “I waited for the brand to contact me, but they never did. I’ve been afraid to leave my house.’
“If a company hires a trans person and then doesn’t publicly assist them, it’s worse than not hiring a trans person at all.”