King of Beers?
Budweiser, which once prided itself as America's "King of Beers," is being beaten a royal black and blue by a horde of craft beer brands eating away at its market.
Its owner, Anheuser-Busch InBev based in Belgium, reported young American millennials are increasingly abandoning the working man's Bud for the more elite and more expensive craft beers that seem to be everywhere these days.
Bud's U.S. market share dropped to 8.7 percent in 2013, down from 14.3 percent in 2005, according to the New York Post.
Company research shows the average American is drinking 40 percent less Bud than in 2004. Worse, data shows nearly half of all American drinkers between the ages of 21 and 27 haven't even tried a Bud.
Another piece of bad news for Bud. Its overall beer sales in the U.S. in 2013 fell two percent but craft beer sales from America's 2,700 microbreweries and brewpubs jumped 17 percent, according to the Brewers Association.
"We do not expect to stabilize Bud in the US in the short term," said InBev Chief Financial Officer Felipe Dutra. "We have been repositioning the brand and making it more relevant for younger adults, but it's not an easy task."
That task will see InBev boost sales and marketing spending by nine percent this year, three times the increase analysts expected.
InBev will also turn to its high growth overseas markets. Bud depends on overseas markets such as China and Brazil for continued growth. Its foreign sales now account for 60 percent of all Buds consumed.
That no longer makes Bud the All-American brand it once was.
