Billy Busch, the heir to Anheuser-Busch, says that he wants to buy the company back from InBev. Bud Light’s partnership with the dress-wearing man child Dylan Mulvaney a little over four months ago turned into a complete disaster for the company, but Busch believes that he can “make that brand great again.”
Busch expressed his interest in buying the company, which was sold to InBev, a Brazilian-based company, in 2008, on an episode of Tomi Lahren’s “Fearless” show on Outkick.
“I think InBev doesn’t understand who their core drinker is. It’s a Brazilian-based company that really doesn’t live here in America,” Busch explained, adding that under the leadership of his family, they not only formed connections with customers but understood them.
“They knew who their drinkers were. They were with the bar owners and the restaurant owners and the liquor store owners and talking to these people day in and day out. Even my dad at 89 years old, 90 years old, he was still going to the bars selling Budweiser back in those days, in the ’80s.”
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He criticized InBev for damaging the reputation his family had worked hard to build. He attributed the failure to the employment of “woke marketing students” to create its advertisements.
“When you are a foreign company and you rely on these woke students that are coming out of these woke colleges to do your advertising for you, you’re making a big mistake,” Busch explained. “You need to go out there and understand who your core customer is.”
Busch says he’ll be the first in line to buy the brand back.
“I urge that company, InBev, if they don’t want that brand any longer, sell it back to the Busch family. Sell it to me. I’ll be the first in line to buy that brand back from you. And we’ll make that brand great again.”
After Bud Light’s epic collapse, Anheuser-Busch Heir Billy Busch tells @TomiLahren he wants to buy the company BACK from InBev, and Make Bud Light Great Again! pic.twitter.com/1vKUNoSJ5g
— OutKick (@Outkick) August 16, 2023
So far, attempts to lure former customers back have failed, Anheuser-Busch distributors have basically given up on getting their lost customers back. Something drastic is needed if the brand is going to be saved. Could a change of ownership help restore faith in the brand? It might not, but it might give it a chance, and Busch would likely be able to get it back for a good price. In all likelihood, it could take years to build the brand back up, but any hope of that happening would require the company be put in the hands of those who, as Busch said, understand its customers.
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