Beer wars: Bud Light loses top spot to Modelo in May
Bud Light now holds 7.3% of total US beer market retail sales, Modelo moved up to the No. 1 spot with 8.4%.
Move over Bud Light, Modelo is now No. 1.
The Constellation Brands (STZ) beer knocked off previous leader Bud Light (BUD), which has been embroiled in a boycott from the likes of Kid Rock over an endorsement from a transgender TikTok influencer — and possibly a reverse boycott from the LGBTQ community.
In the four-week period ending June 3, Modelo Especial made its way to the top. Modelo holds 8.4% of total retail sales in the US beer market. That's compared to Bud Light, which now holds 7.3%, per Nielsen and Bump Williams Consulting. At the start of the year, Bud Light held a 10.3% share, higher compared to Modelo, 7.5%.
Other competitors saw a slight uptick in market share too. While Miller Lite maintained its 5.3% share through the end of May, Coors Light got a slight boost to 6.2% of total sales, up from 6.1% during the prior four-week period.
This is now going on month three of the Bud Light boycott. It followed an Instagram post made by transgender influencer and TikTok personality, Dylan Mulvaney, endorsing the beer during the March Madness basketball tournament. That post then prompted an April 3 video from country singer — formerly rap-rock singer — Kid Rock about boycotting the beer, which then turned into a wider-spread boycott among certain US consumers.
Bud Light was also met with boycotts from others, including from the LGBTQ community like 2Bears Tavern Uptown in Chicago, following an earnings call with investors in which Anheuser-Busch InBev CEO Michel Dimitrios Doukeris downplayed the controversy.
In an Instagram post, the bar venue said "Anheuser-Busch's decision to drop its support of Mulvaney in response to ignorant and hateful objections by some of its customers shows how little Anheuser-Busch cares about the LGBTQIA+ community..."
But, Modelo still has "a ways to go" before it claims the top spot for the full year, per Bumps Williams Consulting.
Compared to May of last year, Bud Light lost 2.6 percentage points of its total beer sales market share, down from 9.9% this time last year. At the same time, Modelo gained 0.6 points, Coors Light gained 1.1 points, and Miller Lite gained 0.8 points.
While Modelo has overtaken Bud Light in recent weeks, Bud Light still holds the top spot year-to-date.
As of June 3 (the first 22 weeks of 2023), Bud Light holds 9.0% of total retail sales in the US market, followed by Modelo, at 8.0%, Coors Light, at 5.6%, and Miller Lite, at 4.9%.
This equates to a roughly $200 million sales advantage that Bud Light still has over Modelo, per Bumps Williams Consulting, but "Modelo Especial appears to be increasing its sales growth each week as we get deeper into summer."
Compared to the week ending June 3 last year, Modelo Especial saw a 12.2% increase in sales, whereas Bud Light saw a 24.4% drop in sales.
Year-to-date shares of Anheuser-Bush InBev, which owns Bud Light, are down 5.4% while shares of Constellation Brands are up 6.8%.
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Brooke DiPalma is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter at @BrookeDiPalma or email her at bdipalma@yahoofinance.com.
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