Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB-InBev) will be selling eight craft beer brands to Tilray Brands, according to a Monday announcement from the anti-American beer giant. The move will cut AB-InBev’s craft beer portfolio significantly.
Tilray, a Canadian cannabis company, will be purchasing Shock Top, Breckenridge Brewery, Blue Point Brewing Company, 10 Barrel Brewing Company, Redhook Brewery, Widmer Brothers Brewing, Square Mile Cider Company and Hiball Energy in the deal, which is expected to be finalized in Sept. 2023 for $85 million, according to the Tilray 8-k filing. This would make Tilray Brands the fifth-largest craft beer business in the United States.
Anheuser-Busch will also be selling off the brands’ employees, breweries and associated brewpubs.
“Today’s announcement both solidifies our national leadership position and share in the U.S. craft brewing market and marks a major step forward in our diversification strategy,” said Irwin D. Simon, the chairman and CEO of Tilray Brands. “We are excited to work with the teams behind these iconic brands that command great consumer loyalty and have a history of delivering strong award-winning products with tremendous growth opportunities. Tilray is fully committed to invest in and champion the future of the U.S. craft beer industry by fueling new innovation that excites and further accelerates the growth of its consumer base.”
This news comes amid collapsing sales. The beer company said revenue in the U.S. declined by 10.5%, from April to June from a year earlier, “primarily due to the volume decline of Bud Light,” according to the second-quarter report, resulting in a nearly $400 million loss.
In June, the New York Times reported that Bud Light was no longer American’s top beer brand, but that a Mexican beer made by Constellation Brands, Modelo Especial, had taken that spot, making up 8.4 percent of U.S. retail beer sales in the four weeks that ended June 3, according to Nielsen IQ data analyzed by the consulting firm Bump Williams. In that period, Sales of Bud Light fell to 7.3 percent in the same period.
