Anheuser Busch, the US subsidiary of the AB InBev group, is planning to cut several hundred jobs at its branches due to poor sales figures, specialist website Brewbound reported on Thursday.
In total, less than 2% of the staff of the North American giant, which currently employs 19,000 people according to its website, would be affected.
The restructuring "will simplify and reduce layers within the organisation," a company spokesperson told Brewbound. The redundancies would mainly affect staff in administrative services and in charge of marketing.
Anheuser Busch's frontline workers, such as brewery and warehouse staff, drivers, and field sales representatives, will not be affected, the company said.
The exact reasons for the job cuts have not been directly stated by the company, but the decision could be linked to a controversy surrounding an advertising campaign for Bud Light beer. The brand teamed up with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney to promote its beer, provoking the anger of US conservatives, who even called for a boycott of the drink.
Florida governor and US presidential candidate Ron DeSantis, meanwhile, has threatened to take AB InBev to court because the state of Florida has invested in pension funds containing AB InBev shares and these have lost value as a result of the boycott.
The US market accounts for a quarter of AB InBev’s sales and 30% of its profits.
