Anson Frericks, former president of Anheuser Busch Sales and Distribution Co., called for Anheuser-Busch’s CEO Brendan Whitworth to be canned just ahead of the Fourth of July holiday — the biggest sales day of the year, in an op-ed to the Daily Mail.
He says this weekend is a make-or-break for the company that has lost $20 billion in market cap value since Bud Light partnered with trans activist Dylan Mulvaney, the Daily Mail reported.
However, Whitworth claims that the battle for the beer giant has been lost after Mulvaney took to Instagram to cut ties with the now number-two beer in the country.
“For a company to hire a trans person and then not publicly stand by them is worse than not hiring a trans person at all because it gives customers permission to be as transphobic and hateful as they want,” Mulvaney said in an Instagram post uploaded Thursday. “It has serious and grave consequences for the rest of our community, and we’re customers too.”
Mulvaney said the beer giant never reached out to him once the controversy ensued following his April 1 Tik Tok post displaying a Bud Light can with his face on it.
AB-Inbev responded to Mulvaney’s comments on Friday.
“The privacy and safety of our employees and our partners is always our top priority,” the beer giant said. “As we move forward, we will focus on what we do best — brewing great beer for everyone and earning our place in moments that matter to our consumers.”
Frericks blasted the company for its lack of clarity.
“What does that mean? Absolutely nothing. And it will only deepen the chasm between the brand and its customers,” Frericks wrote. “As such — and I take no pleasure in passing this judgment — it’s clear to me that it’s time for the shareholders and board of Anheuser-Busch to ask Whitworth to step down.”
Frericks said he had a “good relationship” with Whitworth, and he “personally promoted him twice” and made him president of Anheuser Busch Sales & Distribution Co in 2021.
Whitworth made his first public appearance since the scandal first broke on CBS Morning News. He was asked twice by hosts if he would send Mulvaney the can again, and he deflected answering the question both times.
“He’s been paralyzed by corporate America’s forced adoption of ‘stakeholder’ capitalism, which preaches to companies about why they must serve activists, politicians, non-governmental organizations, and all manner of interests — anyone really apart from their shareholders and customers!” Frericks wrote.
Instead of listening to ordinary Americans, whose life savings are being held in pensions, he said Whitworth is being controlled by large asset managers known as the “Big Three” which are Vanguard, BlackRock, and State Street. He said the Big Three are pushing “diversity and inclusion” targets, something which ordinary Americans don’t care about, who “want the best for their families.”
“Whitworth has clearly shown himself to be incapable of solving the Mulvaney crisis,” Frericks said. “It’s time he did the right thing and stepped aside to make way for someone capable righting the sinking Bud Light ship”
