How a Strategic Shift Helped Anheuser‑Busch Beat the Beer Market Slump

The major beer company has had to rethink its focus.

BY AVA LEVINSON, NEWS WRITER

(Photo by Kenzo Tribouillard / AFP via Getty Images)

Amid an industry-wide decline in beer sales, Anheuser-Busch seems to be holding strong. The steps it has taken to push past beer into alternative drink options are paying off, as seen through Michelob Ultra becoming the top-selling beer in the U.S. and canned cocktails breaking new ground in the industry.

“Anheuser-Busch has done a really good job diversifying their portfolio,” Dave Williams, president of beer analysts Bump Williams Consulting, told CNN. 

A Successful Move Into Non-Beer Brands

The brand’s plan to expand beyond beer into non-alcoholic beer and ready-to-drink options has “helped alleviate or offset some of the ongoing pressures that they and a lot of other [beer] manufacturers are seeing,” said Williams. 

Its non-beer brands aren’t just doing well. Their growth has “accelerated,” according to CEO Michel Doukeris in last month’s earnings call. It has catapulted Anheuser-Busch into the fastest-growing spirits supplier in the country. 

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That sector makes up three percent of the company’s total revenue, and its volume is expected to grow twice as fast as the beer category overall, according to Doukeris. 

Brewers Face Tough Landscape

The uptick in the spirits category of the brand comes amid a slump for beer sales. It showed up in Anheuser-Busch’s earnings in Q4, when the company reported a 1.8 percent drop in U.S. revenue while global beer volumes fell 1.9 percent. 

It’s partly because of Bud Light’s failed advertisement in 2023, but all beers are struggling to grow right now. 

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