By Ralph Tathagata

Following the protracted backlash to its brief partnership with a transgender influencer to promote Bud Light beer, Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world’s largest brewer, may have lost a staggering $1.4 billion in sales.

According to a CNN report, AB InBev’s record revenues for 2023 stated that its “full growth potential was constrained” by its U.S. business. The company stated that its sales were badly affected by a massive boycott of Bud Light over a sponsored Instagram post with Dylan Mulvaney, a transgender influencer.

“In the U.S., performance remains very underwhelming with revenue down at double-digit rates as the group lost market share,” Aarin Chiekrie, an equity analyst at online investing platform Hargreaves Lansdown, said Thursday.

The report revealed that beer sales by volume tumbled in North America, primarily due to a decline in Bud Light sales in the United States. As a result, the company’s organic revenue, seen as the best measure of operating performance, plunged $1.4 billion in 2023.

It would be recalled that beer makes up the lion’s share of AB InBev’s revenue, and that Bud Light sales plummeted after the company’s partnership with Mulvaney last April, sparked an anti-trans backlash and called for a boycott.

So far, Modelo Especial, a Mexican lager beer, has upstaged Bud Light as America’s top-selling beer, a title Bud Light had held for more than two decades.

Meanwhile, AB InBev remains hopeful about the outlook for its U.S. business as it said, “Our beer market share (in the United States) has seen continued gradual improvement since May through the end of December.”