E-Malt.com News article: 4113

USA: Miller Brewing Co. announced on January 28 it applauded Anheuser-Busch’s formal announcement that it will nationally roll out a new Budweiser on February 21. Called “Budweiser Select,” the new beer has a darker color and stronger taste than the original Budweiser or Bud Light. The announcement confirms the long-running speculation that Anheuser-Busch would introduce a new lager designed to perform better than Bud Light in direct competition with Miller Lite, particularly on the aspects of color, taste and carb count.

“Bud Select is a clear admission that Anheuser-Busch knows it has real disadvantages with original Bud and Bud Light,” said Bob Mikulay, Miller’s executive vice president for marketing. “America’s beer drinkers are increasingly turning to Miller Lite, and that’s forced Anheuser-Busch to bring out a new Bud.”

According to ACNielsen supermarket data* in 2004, sales of Miller Lite grew 11.9 percent, driven heavily by marketing efforts focused on asking beer drinkers to make direct comparisons between Miller Lite and Bud Light. Last year, sales of Bud Light grew 1.7 percent while sales of Budweiser declined 7.5 percent. In fact, Budweiser was the largest-volume declining beer in America last year, as sales decreased by 3.7 million cases in U.S. supermarkets, more than three times the decline of the next closest beer competitor.

In the early test markets for Bud Select, independent analysts with Morgan Stanley found the new Budweiser to be “highly cannibalistic” of the sales of Budweiser, Bud Light and other Anheuser-Busch products, estimating a cannibalism rate of 70-75 percent.

“We are somewhat concerned that launching Bud Select plays into Miller’s hands,” said the Morgan Stanley report, which also noted that the research indicated, “Bud Select may only have moderate success at slowing share growth of Miller Lite.”

Milwaukee-based Miller Brewing Company is the oldest major brewer in America and a wholly owned subsidiary of SABMiller plc, one of the world’s largest brewers. Miller’s principal beer brands are Miller Lite, Miller Genuine Draft and Miller High Life. The company imports Pilsner Urquell, Peroni Nastro Azzurro and Foster’s and has craft brews Leinenkugel’s and Henry Weinhard’s. Its portfolio of brands also includes Milwaukee’s Best and Sharp’s, a non-alcohol brew.


02 February, 2005