Replies to post #250 on Anheuser Busch Companies (BUD)

[FUNMAN]

Pretty narrow trading range today. The volume may indicate some people are betting on Mr. Doukeris.

Should be interesting to read what Michel Doukeris, the new CEO of Anheuser-Busch, wants to do to revive declining U.S. sales.

He has done a great job elsewhere and has a terrific resume. He has been responsible for some of the biggest regional growth in the whole company worldwide.

In the U.S. he championed the creation of The High End business unit which now has more than 5 billion USD in global sales. That's 8% of BUD's total revenues.


Resume:

Michel Doukeris joined our company in 1996 and held sales positions of increasing responsibility before becoming Vice President Soft Drinks for our Latin America North Zone in 2008. He was appointed President AB InBev China in January 2010 and Zone President Asia Pacific in January 2013.

Under Michel’s leadership, AB InBev outperformed the industry in several key metrics, including growth in volumes and earnings, over five years. During his tenure in China, he oversaw Budweiser’s rapid growth, helping to make China Budweiser’s largest growth market.

Michel also championed the creation of The High End business unit, first created in China and the US then expanded to 22 countries around the world during his tenure as Chief Sales Officer. The High End business unit now has more than 5 billion USD in global sales and significant share gains in the premium segment across markets. In addition, he executed a successful new strategy for AB InBev in South Korea, a developed three tier market where we are a leader in the country.

[FUNMAN]

BUD replaces chief to stem sales slide

Anheuser-Busch InBev replaces North America chief to stem sales slide

THOMSON REUTERS
Nov 13th 2017 10:39AM

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The world's biggest brewer, Anheuser-Busch InBev, is replacing the head of its North America business to stem a slide in sales in its largest market.

AB InBev said Joao Castro Neves had decided to step down and his place would be taken on Jan. 1 by another Brazilian company veteran, Michel Doukeris, currently chief sales officer.

Consumers in the United States are shifting from AB InBev's mainstream lagers Budweiser and Bud Light to craft beers made by smaller brewers, Mexican imports or wines and spirits.

AB InBev has sold less beer in North America in each year since 2014, with a steep 6.2 percent drop in the third quarter of this year.

"People are trading up," said Liberum analyst Nico von Stackelberg. "I don’t think anyone is really hoping for dramatic volume turnarounds. Just stopping the bleeding is the hope."

Doukeris has previously headed up the company's Chinese and Asia Pacific operations, helping to expand Budweiser globally and launching AB InBev's U.S. unit focused on import and craft beer brands, which have grown.

"The U.S. is our most important market and we recognize the need to continue to focus on driving topline growth across our portfolio," said AB InBev Chief Executive Carlos Brito.

AB InBev shares were down 0.4 percent at 100.05 euros at 1420 GMT.

(Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop; additional reporting by Martinne Geller; editing by Tom Pfeiffer)

[FUNMAN]

Anheuser-Busch tasks new CEO and North American president with driving topline growth

FIX AMERICA and BUD will "own" the beer world.

https://www.fooddive.com/news/anheuser-busch-tasks-new-ceo-and-north-american-president-with-driving-topl/510736/

Dive Brief:

Michel Doukeris will be the CEO of Anheuser-Busch and Zone President North America as of January 1, the company announced Monday. Doukeris will replace João Castro Neves, who the company said will step down from the role to pursue other opportunities.

Doukeris, a Brazilian citizen, joined the company in 1996 and worked in several sales positions before becoming president of AB InBev China and then Zone President Asia Pacific. He is currently AB InBev's chief sales officer.

[color=blue]“The U.S. is our most important market and we recognize the need to continue to focus on driving topline growth across our portfolio,” said Carlos Brito, CEO of AB InBev. “Michel has extensive experience delivering results for our business worldwide, including helping to grow Budweiser globally and launching The High End business strategy, which now represents [$5 billion] of sales."[/color]

Dive Insight:

Anheuser-Busch's incoming CEO is a company insider with extensive sales experience. He will need to focus on driving growth in the North American market, where the company has lost market share over the past few years and where sales continue to be sluggish — particularly for its Budweiser and Bud Light brands.

According to Statista, Bud Light has the highest market share of any domestic beer, representing about 18.4% of sales. However, sales remained challenged as beer drinkers moved to craft brews and cheaper lagers. During the quarter ended Sept. 30, AB InBev estimated Bud Light lost nearly a percentage point in market share, while Budweiser slipped just under half of a percent.

The beer maker, which came together last year following mega-merger between SAB Miller and Anheuser-Busch InBev, said the integration remains on track. Cost savings from the deal could reach at least $3.2 billion compared with the company's earlier $2.8 billion estimate, its latest earnings report said.

AB InBev has been attempting to regain market share, which has slipped from 19% to 16% since 2010 — a challenge facing the big breweries as consumers flock to other alcohol varieties or craft beers with interesting flavors and clever names. The beer giant reported strong profits following its acquisition of SABMiller last year, but overall beer consumption is down while sales of wine and spirit sales are growing.

Doukeris has his work cut out for him, but he has the right kind of experience that the beer giant needs to improve U.S. business. Brito told The Wall Street Journal, “Now, we’re going to have a more commercially minded person at the head of the business.” Doukeris has a master's degree in marketing from a top Brazilian university and has completed post-graduate marketing programs at the Kellogg School of Management and Wharton Business School.

And while it may take hard work to turn around AB InBev's brands in the U.S., Doukeris has done similar work for the company before. In 2015, while Doukeris was head of the brewery's Asia-Pacific division, sales of beer in Vietnam outpaced the country's GDP.

“Asia Pacific is now the third largest zone of AB InBev in terms of volume, and Vietnam is considered the next turning point for us in Southeast Asia,” Doukeris said at an opening ceremony at a Ho Chi Minh City brewery, according to Bloomberg.

While the U.S. is not Vietnam, Doukeris has shown that he can grow sales in a difficult market. And nowadays, it does not get more difficult than the quickly changing U.S. He told The Wall Street Journal that he will be investing more in data and analytics to do more regional and targeted marketing. Beer drinkers can likely expect to see more of the kinds of promotions that relabeled Budweiser "America" for part of the past two summers, as well as its bottles that used the label to honor the states where the beer was made.

Doukeris is also likely to be looking for more ways to diversify the company's products and its portfolio by taking advantage of M&A opportunities as they arise — although these kinds of expansions are tricky for such a major industry player that cannot take too much of the general market. He will also need to keep refreshing the North American market share with innovative beers that capture consumer interest, are on-trend and can successfully compete with creative craft brewers.

[FUNMAN]

Anheuser-Busch Inbev Sa (NYSE:BUD) Short Interest Down -14.84% – Shares Trading Down
NOVEMBER 13, 2017
BY LARRY KRAMER

Short traders are more bullish on shares of the company lately if you consider the motion in short interest. The stock experienced a fall in short interest from October 13, 2017 to October 31, 2017 of -14.84%. Short shares fell 590,948 over that period. With short interest at 3,391,206 and short average daily volume at 1,985,517, days to cover is 2.0 and the percentage of shorted shares was 0.00% on October 31.

[FUNMAN]

Oakland approves Golden Road Brewing's plans to open Temescal beer garden and brew pub

By Alyssa Pereira, SFGATE
Published 9:56 am,
Wednesday, November 15, 2017

The City of Oakland has approved Golden Road Brewing's proposal to open a brew pub and beer garden in the Temescal neighborhood, a Golden Road spokesperson confirmed.

Earlier this year the brewery announced plans to open a nearly 9,000 square-foot space with seven shipping containers, multiple fire pits and an onsite nanobrewery at 320, 322 and 330 40th Street.

Concerns over noise and increased traffic forced the company was forced to significantly revise their plans. Golden Road then cut their proposed space by more than half, from 8,606 square-feet to around 4,000 square-feet.

The approved plans now include a brew pub with 1,613 square-feet of floor area with the rest of the area to be used as a beer garden. A spokesperson says Golden Road has not yet confirmed a date to begin construction.

Golden Road co-founder Meg Gill, who at one time worked for Speakeasy in San Francisco, told SFGATE in March that she was looking forward to making a return to the Bay Area.

"(Oakland) has embraced our concept of the Golden Road Flipflop pub (a nano-brewery in a container), and there is also a relaxed, yet active, community there that was a fit for us," Gill said in the spring. "Our goal is to be one of the many great options for beer in Oakland."

The project has been controversial from the start. The brewery, which is based in Los Angeles, was purchased by Anheuser-Busch InBev in 2015 and vocal critics and supporters of the craft beer industry condemned the plans, calling AB InBev's growth aspirations "nakedly monopolistic."

Sam Gilbert, the founder of the nearby small craft brewery Temescal Brewing, said Golden Road is "not healthy competition" but rather "a deliberate attempt by an international conglomerate to stifle small business and to cash in on a beer scene started through the risk and sacrifice of local beer lovers."

Anheuser-Busch InBev represents more than 40 percent of beer sold domestically. That number includes Budweiser and Bud Light, but also beers from a number of formerly "craft" brands it has acquired in recent years, including North Carolina's Wicked Weed, Chicago's Goose Island, and Oregon's 10 Barrel.

Golden Road is also opening a similar but much larger brewpub in Orange County at the end of November.

SFGATE has reached out to the city of Oakland's planning department for comment.

[FUNMAN]

Dilly Dilly with Bud Light

By afaqs! news bureau, New Delhi,
November 27, 2017

The brand has come to see "Dilly Dilly" as a watershed viral moment, on par with some other famous Anheuser-Busch campaigns of the past.

Bud Light's sequel to its amusing medieval-themed "Banquet" commercial (in August), is even more amusing.

Banquet featured royal subjects delivering cases of Bud Light to their king at a feast. However, one insufferable guy - an ancestor of today's craft beer 'snobs' - gives the King a bottle of "spiced honey mead wine" that he's "really been into lately."

The offensive chap is quickly banished to the "Pit of Misery." And there begins the new spot. The ad really gathered steam when Pittsburgh Steelers' quarterback Ben Roethlisberger yelled out a "Dilly Dilly" audible against the Titans.

Social media use of "Dilly Dilly" has hit a peak with about 100,000 Google searches per week for the phrase and about 45,000 searches on YouTube per week, according to Anheuser-Busch. The brand has come to see "Dilly Dilly" as a watershed viral moment, on par with some other famous Anheuser-Busch campaigns of the past.


http://www.afaqs.com/shareworthy/189-Dilly-Dilly-with-Bud-Light

[FUNMAN]

Anheuser-Busch InBev? - 50K farmers, 6 continents, 1 amazing story. See how we work with farmers globally & locally on efforts #BigandSmall. #BetterWorld http://bit.ly/2ivJYRT

50K farmers, 6 continents, 1 amazing story. See how we work with farmers globally & locally on efforts #BigandSmall. #BetterWorld https://t.co/OMOPS6zc8a pic.twitter.com/BPI6AXwENt

— AB InBev (@abinbev) December 1, 2017

[FUNMAN]

Anheuser-Busch Launches New ‘Elevate’ Initiative
Chris Furnari
Dec. 12, 2017 at 8:59 AM


Anheuser-Busch InBev, via its “High End” craft division in the U.S., today announced the launch of a new initiative aimed at “building a better future” for the beer industry.

Called Elevate, the program is A-B’s effort to make its 11 U.S. craft beer and cider brands better stewards of the industry.

Speaking to Brewbound, High End president Felipe Szpigel said the new initiative would include commitments and investments into four key areas: beer, the environment, communities and the industry.

“Elevate is our way of forging a new collaborative path forward for the entire industry,” the company wrote on the recently launched elevatebeer.com website.

So what does Elevate entail?

The company has said it will print “best consumed by” dates on all of its craft packages by the end of 2018, so “consumers know the timeframe in which their beers taste the best.”

“It’s a key step that will ensure our beer drinkers enjoy the best tasting, freshest beer,” Szpigel told Brewbound. “It’s something we hope is followed by the entire industry.”

Some of A-B’s High End brands will also continue to print both “best by” as well as “packaged on” dates, he said, noting that one of the company’s craft breweries — Colorado’s Breckenridge Brewery — does not currently offer either.

A-B has also committed to using 100 percent solar and wind power at its craft breweries by 2020 while simultaneously reducing water usage at those facilities by 20 percent during the same period.

“We are collectively motivated to double down on our commitment to achieve best-in-class environmental standards,” Szpigel said, noting that A-B would install solar panels at all of its craft breweries next year.

A-B has also created a $2 million donation budget for its craft partners –10 Barrel Brewing, Blue Point Brewing, Breckenridge Brewing, Devils Backbone Brewing, Elysian Brewing, Four Peaks Brewing, Golden Road Brewing, Goose Island, Karbach Brewing, Virtue Cider and Wicked Weed – which each company can use to assist non-profit organizations in their local communities.

Lastly, the initiative will include investments that “elevate” the beer experience for consumers and industry members alike. The company plans to host regular safety seminars for industry members at all of its craft breweries in 2018.

A-B said it would also work to identify new drinking experiences for consumers and actively identify ways to bring new drinkers into the category

“The incredible growth enjoyed by the overall beer industry has slowed,” Szpigel told Brewbound. “We need to be real about this and work together to return the beer industry to the growth we know it deserves.”

Spzigel declined to share specific investment figures for the entire Elevate initiative, saying only that it was “significant.”

A-B has also retained accounting firm KPMG to audit the initiative and provide “third-party, independent verification” of its stated commitments.

Elevate was the product of multiple “Craft Advisory Board” meetings over several months, Spzigel added.