Beer Makers Bank on Sports

Brewers globally are set to sell more beer this year following a recent stretch of sales declines, propped up by summer sports activity, slower inflation, changing weather, and the end of a boycott, reports Reuters.

Beer makers are eagerly waiting for the Paris 2024 Olympics and the 2024 European Championship football tournament to help support sales this summer, according to the report.

Anheuser-Busch InBev reported a smaller-than-expected drop in volume sales on Wednesday. The sales were affected by a U.S. boycott of Bud Light last year, wherein conservative customers retaliated over a social media promotion with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.

"Now we are past the anniversary of the Bud Light calamity, we expect organic volume and sales growth to improve," James Edwardes Jones, an analyst at RBC Capital, said of the brewer. Analysts expect the brewer to see a one percent rise in volumes over the year.

Globally, brewers have been forced in recent years to increase prices because of rising costs across the supply chain; now that cost increases have eased, prices should level out, according to the report.

"Price increases have dominated as a source of growth in the last two years... We're now in a situation where we hopefully see volumes taking over as a revenue driver," said Berndt Maisch, a fund manager at Carlsberg investor Tresides Asset Management. Full Story