Anheuser-Busch makes hundreds of corporate employees redundant
USA | AB-InBev announced a corporate restructuring at its US unit Anheuser-Busch (A-B) that will see just under 2 percent of its workforce laid off, the website brewbound.com reported on 26 July. Some 380 jobs could be affected.
A-B employs 19,000 US workers, according to the company’s website. If that employee count is accurate, the company will cut around 380 jobs.
While the restructuring will reduce layers within the organisation, it will not affect A-B’s frontline workers, including brewery and warehouse staff, drivers, and field sales reps, brewbound.com said.
The job cuts come as Bud Light and other A-B brands continue to post sales declines, following the ill-fated marketing partnership with a transgender influencer which led to a conservative-led boycott of the company.
Bud Light still number one by volume sales
Data for the week ending 16 July show that the Bud brand family saw dollar sales decline 20.1 percent year-over-year and volume sales drop 23.6 percent in the off-premise, according to brewbound.com. However, Bud Light remains the number one beer brand by volume. It only ceded the top spot in dollar sales to Constellation Brands’ Modelo.
All of A-B’s brands combined saw dollar sales drop in the off-premise by 10.2 percent in the week to 16 July, while volume sales declined nearly 14 percent.
Because of the sales decline, A-B’s US market share has tanked to 36 percent, from 45 percent in 2016. Bernstein Autonomous analyst Nadine Sarwat wrote that “it appears that a significant body of former Bud Light consumers have not just boycotted the brand, they have deserted it.” Per Bernstein’s model, 50 percent of Bud Light’s share loss “will be permanent, though this is starting to look a bit too optimistic”.
