Anheuser-Busch said it would be laying off about 350 employees following five straight months of double-digit declines in sales of Bud Light due to the consumer boycott. The layoffs are said to be at all tiers of the company, including some corporate positions.
AB has about 18,000 employees nationwide and the layoffs will impact less than 2% of those. It is still a dramatic measure for the worlds largest brewer to make, and the implications are long term. It will be a long and difficult road to regain lost sales, and the Bud Light brand may never fully recover. Although it is still a power brand, Bud Light recently lost its number one selling beer status to Modelo in the US.
Bud Light sales in the last week of June were down nearly 28% year on year, according to Nielsen IQ data cited by Bump Williams consulting. Shares in AB InBev have declined 11%
The drop in sales has had a ripple effect. The Ardagh Group, a glass producer that contracts with AB announced that they will close its Bottle plants in North Carolina and Louisiana in July, with roughly 645 employees losing their jobs.
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