AB InBev's new strategy: e-commerce and alternatives for beer

Michel Doukeris, since this year the new top executive of beer giant AB InBev, has revealed his growth strategy for the coming years. In short: e-commerce and alternatives to beer (such as hard seltzers) should boost profits and thus shrink the enormous debt mountain.

Takeover strategy

Doukeris took over the helm last summer from the almost legendary Carlos Brito, who had used an aggressive take-over strategy to build AB InBev from a modest multinational into the world’s largest beer group. But that journey ended on a false note: the acquisition of SABMiller did not deliver the hoped-for synergy benefits, and saddled the group with a hefty debt while it was not doing so well operationally.

Brito was thus partly judged on its weakness: the acquisitions masked the fact that organic growth – read: selling more beer – left much to be desired. It was precisely in this area that Doukeris had shown promise in his previous roles at AB InBev in Asia and North America. And so the market hoped he would bring that experience to the group level. Last Monday, he presented to analysts how he plans to do that.

Hard seltzers

First, Doukeris hopes to benefit more from the overall growth of the global beer market than his main competitors Heineken and Carlsberg. A classic driver of that strategy is the launch of new beer varieties. But Doukeris is a big believer in the opportunities for drinks that are more on the periphery of the beer category, such as hard seltzers (flavoured sparkling waters with an alcohol content comparable to lager), canned cocktails and lemonades with alcohol (AB InBev launched Natural Light, lemonades with vodka, last summer).

The other pillar of Doukeris’ growth strategy is e-commerce. AB InBev is building an extensive online retail offering around the world. Of course, it has not escaped the notice of AB InBev’s chief executive that the online segment received a major boost from the corona crisis. “Why should I be able to order a pizza and have it delivered, and not a fresh beer?”, is the witticism noted by business newspaper De Tijd.

To be clear: an online platform of this kind for private individuals does not yet exist in the Benelux regions, a spokeswoman confirmed to RetailDetail. “But it is clearly the company’s ambition to expand this everywhere”, she added.