It’s no secret that Anheuser-Busch hasn’t been doing well for the last few months. Particularly Bud Light. We’ve seen all the news stories. The light beer’s sales, mostly due to the recent Dylan Mulvaney controversy, have dipped so far down that it’s not even the most popular beer in America anymore. Sales have been plummeting for months.
Now, Modelo (which is owned in the U.S. by Constellation Brands, but by Anheuser-Busch outside the U.S.) has stepped right over Bud Light to take the proverbial beer crown. The Mexican beer brand is now the most popular beer in the U.S. This decline in overall sales has led to job cuts at Bud Light, with the company firing more than 350 people, roughly 2% of its overall workforce. But, while that might be rough for a company that has always seemed to be the leader in American beer, it was just the start.
If you didn’t know it already, Anheuser-Busch has bought up craft breweries like Thanos collecting infinity stones. For a while, it seemed like any time a craft brewery received any type of acclaim, Anheuser-Busch would gobble them up like Pac-Man eating blinking dots. Big names like Veza Sur, Karbach, Wynwood, and Elysian were added to the Anheuser-Busch Inbev portfolio over the last few decades. But, with a bottom line to deal with, there’s about to be a major shakeup. This means it’s time to unload some of the brands.
Which craft beer labels is the company selling?
According to reports, Anheuser-Busch has decided to sell off a handful of its brands to a company called Tilray Brands. For those unaware, Tilray is the largest cannabis company in the world. By striking a deal with Anheuser-Busch, it will also become the fifth-largest craft brewer and the fifteenth-largest overall brewer in the U.S.
The breweries being sold to Tilray Brands are Breckenridge Brewery, Blue Point Brewing Company, 10 Barrel Brewing Company, Redhook Brewery, Widmer Brothers Brewing, and Square Mile Cider Company. On top of that, it’s also selling off HiBall Energy. The last beer brand included is Shock Top, one of the most popular wheat beers on the U.S. market.
It should be noted that this isn’t Tilray Brands’ first foray into the beer world. It already owns well-known breweries SweetWater Brewing Company, Alpine Beer Company, Green Flash Brewing Company, and Montauk Brewing Company. On top of that, it owns the popular Breckenridge Distillery as well as Happy Flower CBD sparkling non-alcoholic cocktails.
The deal is expected to be finished by the end of 2023, and this leaves us with some lingering questions. Is this the end of Anheuser-Busch’s fire sale, or is there more to come? Is it only a matter of time before Anheuser-Busch decides to unload huge names like Goose Island and Wicked Weed? Will Bud Light turn the corner and gain in popularity again? Will its sales ever come close to what they once were? Are American tastes simply changing, or is it all because of one advertising campaign? There are a lot of questions and not many answers. Hopefully, over the next few months, some of them will be answered. All we know for now is that Tilray Brands is about to become a household name in the beer world.
