Anheuser-Busch InBev, the maker of Bud Light, confirmed this week is laying off hundreds of positions across its U.S. corporate staff.
The beer maker said the layoffs will impact less than 2% of its workforce. Anheuser-Busch's website says the company employs 19,000 employees nationwide. Warehouse staff, drivers and other frontline employees will not be affected, the company said.
The job cuts arrive during a rocky time for Anheuser-Busch, which has seen a months-long sales decline for Bud Light since April when conservative critics vowed to boycott the brand after the brewer sent a commemorative can to transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney. Bud Light has also faced backlash from Mulvaney's supporters and LGBTQ+ rights groups, who say the brand didn't do enough to support her.
Mulvaney later shared that she felt abandoned by Bud Light, and faced "more bullying and transphobia than I could have ever imagined" over the partnership.
Bud Light is continuing to lose share in the U.S. market to brands like Modelo Especial, which recently surpassed Bud Light in sales for the first time. In the month ending July 15, Bud Light's U.S. sales were down 26.5%, while Modelo's were up 13.5%. Bud Light held a 6.8% share of the U.S. beer market in that period, while Modelo held an 8.7% share. Grupo Modelo is also owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev.
When confirming this week's layoffs, Anheuser-Busch cited restructuring needs and said the changes would "simplify and reduce layers" within the company's organization.
"While we never take these decisions lightly, we want to ensure that our organization continues to be set for future long-term success," CEO Brendan Whitworth said in a statement. "These corporate structure changes will enable our teams to focus on what we do best — brewing great beer for everyone and earning our place in the moments that matter."
Anheuser-Busch did not share a timeline for the layoffs in its statement. But according to The Wall Street Journal, the restructuring has already eliminated marketing and corporate roles at major U.S. offices, including those in New York and Los Angeles.
Since the fallout of the Mulvaney partnership, Bud Light's name has been brought into other anti-LGBTQ+ campaigns and controversies targeting separate brands — including recent incidents at Target, where some angry customers tipped over Pride merchandise and confronted workers, as well as social media campaigns against Disney and Chick-fil-A.
After 20 Years of Acting, Megan Park Finds Her Groove In The Director’s Chair On “My Old Ass”
Megan Park feels a little bad that her movie is making so many people cry. It's not just a single tear either — more like full body sobs.
She didn't set out to make a tearjerker with "My Old Ass," now streaming on Prime Video. She just wanted to tell a story about a young woman in conversation with her older self. The film is quite funny (the dialogue between 18-year-old and almost 40-year-old Elliott happens because of a mushroom trip that includes a Justin Bieber cover), but it packs an emotional punch, too.
Writing, Park said, is often her way of working through things. When she put pen to paper on "My Old Ass," she was a new mom and staying in her childhood bedroom during the pandemic. One night, she and her whole nuclear family slept under the same roof. She didn't know it then, but it would be the last time, and she started wondering what it would be like to have known that.
In the film, older Elliott ( Aubrey Plaza ) advises younger Elliott ( Maisy Stella ) to not be so eager to leave her provincial town, her younger brothers and her parents and to slow down and appreciate things as they are. She also tells her to stay away from a guy named Chad who she meets the next day and discovers that, unfortunately, he's quite cute.
At 38, Park is just getting started as a filmmaker. Her first, "The Fallout," in which Jenna Ortega plays a teen in the aftermath of a school shooting, had one of those pandemic releases that didn't even feel real. But it did get the attention of Margot Robbie 's production company LuckyChap Entertainment, who reached out to Park to see what other ideas she had brewing.
"They were very instrumental in encouraging me to go with it," Park said. "They're just really even-keeled, good people, which makes... Read More