Anheuser-Busch InBev (A-B) outperformed the U.S. beer industry in the first quarter of 2026, the company reported Tuesday. In the U.S., A-B’s Q1 depletions (sales to retailers) increased 0.3% year-over-year (YoY), which the company credited to “beer and beyond beer share gains and an improved industry.” Shipments (sales to wholesalers) declined 3.2%.
Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits’ ambitions for Anheuser-Busch InBev’s portfolio aren’t limited to New York. The wine and spirits juggernaut has struck another deal for a red network distributor, this time for the assets of Eagle Rock Distributing Co. in Colorado.
A pair of big red network distribution deals were announced in the last 24 hours. Anheuser-Busch InBev has agreed to purchase the distribution rights of its brands, as well as “certain craft/NA brands,” from Advance Beverage Company in Bakersfield, California. Meanwhile, Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits inked a deal for independent A-B distributor Clare Rose on Long Island.
The legal battle between the two largest beer makers in the U.S. escalated today, as Anheuser-Busch today accused MillerCoors of breaking state and federal laws by stealing trade secrets regarding beer recipes for its two top-selling brands, Bud Light and Michelob Ultra. In the heavily redacted 66-page amended complaint and counterclaim filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin, A-B alleges that two of its former employees who now work for MillerCoors and its parent company Molson Coors either shared confidential trade secrets with their current employers or sought information from current employees about the making of A-B products.
Anheuser-Busch InBev’s Brewers Collective craft division is betting big on craft beer’s most popular style — the IPA — in 2020. Brewers Collective president Marcelo “Mika” Michaelis told Brewbound that the world’s largest beer company is making a multi-million dollar investment behind a new low-alcohol, low-calorie IPA from Chicago’s Goose Island, as well as a hazy IPA from from Seattle’s Elysian Brewing.
California’s beer distribution system is being shaken up once again. Anheuser-Busch InBev announced Friday evening the planned acquisition of “key assets” from Markstein Beverage Co. in San Marcos, California. The company will add those assets to its existing wholly owned distributor, Anheuser-Busch Sales of San Diego.
Rearrange the blocks, or sell them? That’s the question that Craft Brew Alliance CEO Andy Thomas seemed to be working through in a rare off-cycle conference call with investors and analysts today after his company’s largest playmate, Anheuser-Busch InBev, declined its long-held option to purchase the Portland, Oregon-headquartered craft beer maker.
The awkwardness between Craft Brew Alliance and Anheuser-Busch InBev didn’t end last Friday when the world’s largest beer manufacturer passed on making a qualifying offer to purchase the company. CBA CEO Andy Thomas told Brewbound that the awkwardness has shifted from a will-they, won’t-they-get-married scenario, to one in which the question is if the two companies still want to live together now that they’re no longer engaged.
Call it a scoop. Call it a shill. Either way, Adam Schefter made news today about the relationship between the NFL and Anheuser-Busch InBev. Schefter, the ESPN NFL insider known for breaking the league’s biggest scoops via his Twitter account — including last weekend’s retirement of Indianapolis Colts quarterback Andrew Luck — announced this morning that Anheusr-Busch InBev-owned Bon & Viv is now the “Official Hard Seltzer Sponsor of the NFL.”
The deadline for Anheuser-Busch InBev to make a qualifying offer to acquire the remaining stake of Craft Brew Alliance (CBA) came and went today without an offer. The world’s largest beer manufacturer, which already owns 31.3 percent of the smaller Portland, Oregon-headquartered craft beer maker, had until today, August 23, to either make an offer for the remaining stake in the company at a minimum of $24.50 per share (about $328 million) or pay a $20 million fee.
In this week’s Last Call: Breakside Brewing Implements Employee Stock Ownership Plan; The Brewers Association Shares Brewery Employee Diversity Data; Guns N’ Roses and CANarchy Settle Lawsuit; Anheuser-Busch Rolls Out Bud Light College Branded Packaging.
Anheuser-Busch InBev is back in the craft beer M&A game. After a two-year hiatus following the May 2017 acquisition of Wicked Weed, the world’s largest beer manufacturer announced today the acquisition of Cleveland’s Platform Beer Co., a transaction that is expected to close in the third quarter.
Anheuser-Busch InBev announced today the acquisition of fast-growing Ohio craft brewery Platform Beer Co. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. In a press release, A-B noted that Platform was “the fastest growing regional brewery in the United States in 2017.” According to data from the Brewers Association, the Cleveland craft brewery increased production from 6,500 barrels to 20,000 barrels that year.
Anheuser-Busch InBev’s innovation and growth division, ZX Ventures, has sold Minnesota-based homebrew supply retailer Northern Brewer to Blackstreet Capital Holdings LLC.
In this week’s edition of Last Call: Pyramid owner FIFCO USA settles a lawsuit with its Alehouse staff; Manhattan Beer Distributors and its delivery drivers battle over alleged ‘wage theft;’ Left Hand enters the CBD-infused, non-alcoholic drink market; New Delhi bans A-B InBev for three years; and more news bites.
In this week’s Last Call: Angry Orchard’s security is accused of racial profiling; June U.S. beer shipments decline; Peter Coors calls for government to intervene on aluminum pricing in op-ed; Facebook imposes new alcohol restrictions; and more news.
Anheuser-Busch InBev today reported global revenue growth of 6.2 percent in the second quarter of 2019, despite ongoing volume declines in the U.S. A-B, the world’s largest beer manufacturer, recorded revenues of more than $13.9 billion during the quarter, and a gross profit of $8.7 billion. The company credited “healthy volume growth, global premiumization and revenue management initiatives” for its increased revenue worldwide.
