Beer sales are struggling. Anheuser-Busch isn’t
By Jordan Valinsky, CNN
New York (CNN) — Struggling beer sales should spell doom for the world’s largest brewer. Anheuser-Busch InBev hasn’t gotten that memo.
The company has emerged on the other side of a Bud Light boycott as a bright spot among an industry grappling with customers that are drinking less or ditching beer entirely. Shares are hovering at five-year highs, Michelob Ultra is the top-selling beer in America and its canned cocktails are a hit with drinkers.
The Budweiser-maker set out a few years ago to be known for more than just beer — and its plan is working.
“Anheuser-Busch has done a really good job diversifying their portfolio,” said Dave Williams, president of beer analysts Bump Williams Consulting.
The company acted with urgency to expand beyond beer into the fast-growing categories of non-alcoholic beer and ready-to-drink choices.
That’s “helped alleviate or offset some of the ongoing pressures that they and a lot of other (beer) manufacturers are seeing,” Williams added.
Anheuser-Busch declined to comment to CNN.
But its non-beer brands, which consists of Cutwater Spirits and NÜTRL vodka-based seltzer (among others), earned a shoutout from CEO Michel Doukeris in last month’s earnings.
Their growth has “accelerated,” he said during a call with investors, making Anheuser-Busch — yes, a beer company — the fastest-growing spirits supplier in the US.
The category now accounts for 3% of Anheuser-Busch’s total revenue and is “projected to grow volumes at double the rate of the overall beer category,” Doukeris said.
Beer blues
Meanwhile beer, which is Anheuser-Busch’s biggest business, is struggling with a structural decline.
That was evident in its fourth-quarter earnings, which reported a 1.8% decline in US revenue while global beer volumes fell 1.9%.
Part of the reason is Bud Light, whose sales have never fully recovered from the backlash three years ago. The entire “Premium Light” category — including rivals Coors Light and Miller Lite — continues to struggle for drinkers’ attention.
“Although (these brands are) still widely available, the sector of the business is the biggest and continues to be challenged for growth,” Williams told CNN.
Some light beer drinkers are shifting to ready-to-drink or craft cocktails, he added, but not enough to offset lost customers.
Still, Anheuser-Busch (BUD) isn’t struggling as much as its competitors: Shares are up 15% this year.
Molson Coors reported a decline in fourth-quarter sales, forcing the company’s new CEO to roll out a strategic turnaround plan; Corona-maker Constellation Brands continues to feel the effect of immigration crackdowns; and Heineken recently announced it was cutting 7% of its global workforce in the coming years.
And some highlights in the beer category, like the low-carb Michelob Ultra and budget-minded Busch Light Apple, are both brewed by Anheuser-Busch.
Michelob Ultra Zero last month became the the top-selling non-alcoholic beer brand by volume. Heineken 0.0 still holds the top spot in dollar sales, though the “gap is narrowing,” according to Beer Business Daily.
World Cup bump?
On the February earnings call, Anheuser-Busch’s Doukeris said that while “industry volumes were below trend in 2025, we are encouraged by the start to 2026.”
The beer industry’s volumes and revenues both grew in January, he said.
Plus, sales of Michelob Ultra, NÜTRL and its other drinks should get an additional push with the company’s massive backing of the FIFA World Cup taking place in North America this summer. The event should be a highlight for the brand, which was caught off-guard last minute when its beer was banned at stadiums during the last World Cup in Qatar.
The soccer spectacle has the “ability to shake up demand at a global level,” said Gen Cross, senior equity analyst at BNP Paribas. Past World Cup years have boosted global volume of beer sold by about a quarter of a percent, with sales in the tournament’s months jumping as much as tenfold.
But Williams doesn’t expect the event to fully turn the tide for Anheuser-Busch.
“Until those ‘Premium Light’ brands (i.e. Bud Light) can stem the bleeding, these other categories and brands aren’t quite big enough to collectively offset the losses coming from those,” he said.
Still, Anheuser-Busch is “declining at a lesser degree (than its rivals),” Williams said. “That’s a win right now.”
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