From getting people to lift a cheap Bud Light to getting them to lift a premium-looking dumbbell — that’s the upcoming leadership transition for Brendan Whitworth.
AB InBev (BUD) said Monday that Anheuser-Busch’s CEO Brendan Whitworth is departing the company, which is the North American arm of AB InBev, at the end of November. Whitworth will assume the CEO position at high-end gym chain Equinox.
Michel Doukeris, the CEO of Anheuser-Busch’s parent company AB InBev, will lead the key North America business in the interim until a new leader is announced. Doukeris led the North America business from January 2018 to June 2021. He became CEO of AB InBev in July 2021.
It has been an interesting run for Whitworth in the Anheuser-Busch CEO role over the past five years, to say the very least.
Under Whitworth’s watch, Bud Light felt the sales effect of a nationwide boycott and became a political punching bag by those on the right.
The sales pressure began after transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney partnered with Bud Light to create an Instagram post during the March Madness basketball tournament in 2023 endorsing the light beer. Following the post on April 1, 2023, AB InBev saw Bud Light sales tank.
A high-profile CBS interview by Whitworth in June 2023 did little to stem the public fallout.
Bud Light sales have continued to be under pressure, more so some three years later, due to increased competition for light-beer drinkers and softer alcohol consumption among an increasingly health-conscious universe.
On the other hand, the AB InBev North America business is doing OK more broadly.
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AB InBev said in its third quarter earnings report it was the top share gainer in total alcohol year to date, with market share gains in both beer and spirits. It says it gained share of total alcohol for 10 consecutive quarters, with beer performance led by Michelob Ultra and Busch Light.
AB InBev shares are up 25% year to date.
“Broadly, we remain impressed with the across-the-board progress and view ABI as increasingly the global leader in [alcoholic beverages],” Evercore ISI analyst Robert Ottenstein wrote in a note. “ABI has an unmatched beer portfolio, now meaningfully augmented by its Beyond Beer offerings, is the leader in eComm and digital tech, and has hard-to-match scale advantages in procurement and media properties. In sum, ABI has all the elements of a +high single digit percentage to +double digit percentage compounder worthy of a 20x+ multiple.”
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