Bud Light is still struggling to sell its product months after its failed partnership with transgender TikTok star Dylan Mulvaney. Some experts have said that beer’s popularity may be “lost forever.”
Harry Schuhmacher, a publisher for Beer Business Daily, spoke with Fox News about the beer brand and its recent struggles, noting that sales have yet to rebound.
“You see, Bud Light still just stubbornly down around 30% in volume compared to last year, which is where it’s been since May or June,” Schuhmacher said. “That tells me that this is quasi-permanent, meaning those consumers are just lost forever.”
The data on Bud Light’s sales being in decline comes from Bump Williams Consulting, and Schuhmacher noted that Bud Light, which used to be America’s favorite beer, is down 26.9% in dollars and 30.3% in volume.
Even worse for the Anheuser-Busch InBev-owned brand, Schuhmacher says that it’s “likely” the company will see similar declines in the upcoming years for the “foreseeable future,” despite reports that it had gained back 15% of its boycotting drinkers, the New York Post reported.
Schuhmacher told Fox News Digital that he thinks “the industry thought it would have rebounded by now, but it hasn’t.”
“It’s actually worse than just lost sales because now it’s getting to the point where it’s becoming systemic within the industry, and they’re losing the confidence of the retailers, and that’s when it starts getting bad,” he said.
As for the future, Schuhmacher is predicting a “rough winter” for Bud Light, saying that next summer will be a big indicator of the brand’s long-term success.
“They’re somewhat powerless to fix it, except to remain really active in their local communities, which they’ve done and which they’ve always done. And really, that’s kind of the only saving grace for that brand is those local connections that the wholesalers have,” he told the outlet.