Rival Exec Expects Bud Light To Be Wiped From Shelves In Fall 'Reset'

Looking to grab some Bud Light ahead of next week's slate of preseason games? Better hurry, because it could be hard to find here pretty soon.

At least that's what Molson Coors Chief Executive Gavin Hattersley predicted in a conference call this week, according to the Wall Street Journal.

"Hattersley said on a conference call with analysts that retailers are already reallocating space to other brands during shelf resets that take place in the spring, with more resets to come in the fall," the WSJ wrote. "In bars and other on-premise channels, the company gained more than 12,000 tap handles in the quarter, he added."

Bud Light continues to struggle after Mulvaney disaster

Not a great way to start August for Bud Light. Unfortunately, it's not much different than any other month since April, when the Dylan Mulvaney disaster began.

Sales of the once-popular brew have consistently tanked for four months now, with experts also sounded the alarm recently that Modelo Especial could officially unseat it as the nation's No. 1 beer later this month.

While Modelo has been the biggest benefactor of Bud Light's fallout, Molson Coors isn't far behind. The WSJ also noted that the company is planning an additional $100 million of marketing spending in the second half of the year to keep that sales momentum.

“Our job is to maintain those gains that we’ve got,” Hattersley said.

As OutKick noted earlier this week, Coors reported a second quarter net income of $342 million. That’s an increase of $47 million from the 2022 second quarter. Sales were also up 11.8% to $3.3 billion.

Bud Light, meanwhile, was down nearly 27% in the latest sales data while the Mulvaney fiasco has cost Anheuser-Busch billions. Some experts have predicted that could be a permanent loss, too.

As for the shelf space -- experts also forecasted that as well. Earlier this summer, former AB exec Anson Frericks sounded the alarm on that possibility unfolding as soon as next month.

“ generally take sales data from April, May, June, July, and then based off of that data in that time period, they will reallocate shelf space,” Frericks told the Daily Mail, adding that retailers generally use Labor Day as a reset for the rest of the year.

“That shelf space will be allocated to Miller Lite, Coors Light, Yuengling, and some of the other brands that have taken share from them,” he added.

“That almost permanently then locks in this as the new norm of where their sales will be, and what their share of the beer category will be.”