Heineken CEO Dolf van den Brink (lead image) has weighed in on the PR disaster engulfing rival brand, the Anheuser-Busch-owned Bud Light.
Speaking to CNBC’s ‘Squawk Box Europe’, the Dutchman said of the ongoing Bud trans fiasco: “Particularly in the Western world, we do see a lot of polarisation in society. And that’s affecting all players, all actors in society, also businesses and also brands.
“You have to be thoughtful, you have to be balanced. And at the same time, you need to stand for your values and your principles. And we try to do that to the best of of our abilities,” he said. “So far, I’m proud of how our brand teams across our operating companies are navigating this new world.”
However, Heineken has problems of its own. Van den Brink revealing that the world’s seventh most popular beer had suffered a 5.6 per cent decline in sales this year and an 8.8 per cent like-for-like fall in operating profit.
The CEO said that advertising remained crucial in a challenging market environment and that it had increased marketing spend by €200 million ($A327 million) in the first half.
Heineken’s latest ad, spruiking its 0.0 alcohol free beer and starring F1 ace Max Verstappen, dropped last week. Check it out HERE.
Meanwhile in more bad news for Bud Light following its now infamous trans marketing fiasco, sales of the maligned lager fell 26.8 per cent during the week ended July 22 – slightly worse than Bud Light previous week’s decline of 26.1 per cent, according to data from NielsenIQ and Bump Williams Consulting.
Meanwhile, sales of the number two beer in the US, Modelo Especial, increased 13.4 per cent over the same period, according to the data.
According to Bump Williams, who heads the eponymous consultancy, Modelo Especial should end Bud Light’s 20-year marketshare dominance sometime in August.
“It’s going to happen a lot sooner than anyone had ever thought,” Williams told The New York Post on Monday. “We have it surpassing Bud Light mid-August.”
According to Williams, Anheuser-Busch has reportedly told industry insiders that it believes the Bud Light declines are now “stabilising” with sales remaining down in the “25 per cent to 28 per cent range”.
