{"id":1963239,"date":"2023-07-03T12:43:02","date_gmt":"2023-07-03T16:43:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/former-anheuser-busch-president-calls-on-brands-ceo-to-resign-in-scathing-letter\/"},"modified":"2023-07-03T12:49:38","modified_gmt":"2023-07-03T16:49:38","slug":"former-anheuser-busch-president-calls-on-brands-ceo-to-resign-in-scathing-letter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/former-anheuser-busch-president-calls-on-brands-ceo-to-resign-in-scathing-letter\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Anheuser-Busch President demands CEO&#8217;s resignation in harsh letter."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fformer-anheuser-busch-president-calls-on-brands-ceo-to-resign-in-scathing-letter%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1963239&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>Anheuser-Busch CEO Urged to Resign by Former President in Open Letter<\/h2>\n<p>Anson Frericks has been giving Anheuser-Busch InBev a lot of free advice since the Dylan Mulvaney crisis hit back in April. He now has some more free advice for the brand: It\u2019s time for the CEO to quit, immediately.<\/p>\n<p>Now, granted, free advice is usually worth what you pay for it, and pretty much any armchair conservative could have told Anheuser-Busch\u2019s CEO to quit a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/ben-franklins-name-scrubbed-from-tacoma-city-park\/\" title=\"Ben Franklin\u2019s Name Scrubbed From Tacoma City Park\">long time ago<\/a>. The thing is, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/ex-anheuser-busch-exec-gives-bud-light-free-advice-beer-company-suffers-wokeness\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Frericks<\/a> isn\u2019t just some armchair conservative, nor is his free advice worthless.<\/p>\n<p>Currently the head of Strive Asset Management, Frerick\u2019s is also the former president of Anheuser-Busch \u2014 and, in an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/twitter-mob-attacks-sarah-paulson-for-not-declaring-her-pronouns-on-trans-visibility-day\/\" title=\"Twitter Mob Attacks Sarah Paulson For Not Declaring Her Pronouns On \u2018Trans Visibility Day\u2019\">open letter published<\/a> in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-12252375\/Anheuser-Busch-CEO-failed-fix-Bud-Light-crisis-quit-says-ex-president-sales.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">U.K. Daily Mail<\/a> on Saturday, Frericks said Anheuser-Busch CEO Brandon Whitworth has \u201chad multiple chances and he\u2019s failed\u201d to respond adequately to the Bud Light crisis, meaning \u201c[i]t\u2019s time he did the right thing and stepped aside to make way for someone capable of righting the sinking Bud Light ship.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>Frericks noted at the start of the Op-Ed that while the Fourth of July \u201cweekend is make or break\u201d for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/conservative-beer-launched-response-bud-light-expected-hit-huge-sales-number-movement\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">beer sales<\/a>, \u201cit looks like the battle has already been lost.\u201d<\/h3>\n<p>Furthermore, Frericks said, the transgender \u201cinfluencer\u201d who started this mess, Dylan Mulvaney, \u201cdid something Whitworth should have had the wisdom to do weeks ago \u2013 cut ties.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c\u2018For a company to hire a trans person and then not publicly stand by them is worse than not hiring a trans person at all,\u2019 Mulvaney said in an Instagram post, blasting the company for their failure to \u2018reach out to her\u2019 in the aftermath of their ill-advised campaign back in April,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n<p>And yet, what did the company do? What they\u2019ve done all along, Frericks noted: acted in a way that \u201cwas predictably weak and indecisive.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs we move forward, we will focus on what we do best \u2013 brewing great beer for everyone and earning our place in moments that matter to our consumers,\u201d the company said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat does that mean? Absolutely nothing. And it will only deepen the chasm between the brand and its customers,\u201d Frericks wrote.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs such \u2013 and I take no pleasure in passing this judgement \u2013 it\u2019s clear to me that it\u2019s time for the shareholders and board of Anheuser-Busch to ask Whitworth to step down.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNow, to be clear: I worked with Whitworth for many years at Anheuser-Busch. He personally promoted me twice and eventually made me President of Anheuser Busch Sales &#038; Distribution Co in 2021,\u201d he continued. \u201cWe had a good relationship \u2013 and I left on my own terms to co-found an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/virginia-little-league-coaches-must-attend-antiracist-training\/\" title=\"Virginia Little League Coaches Must Attend \u2018Antiracist\u2019 Training\">asset management company<\/a> last year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo I write this with a heavy heart, not out of spite but because it\u2019s important for Americans to understand how and why corporate leaders can bungle the management of once-iconic American brands so badly, sacrificing countless jobs and invested assets in the process.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Firstly, Frericks laid out the facts as we all know them: On April 1, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/anheuser-busch-responds-dylan-mulvaney-trashes-bud-light\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mulvaney<\/a> posted a video announcing his partnership with Bud Light as part of his \u201c365 Days of Girlhood\u201d transgender transitioning series on TikTok.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe consumer backlash was immediate,\u201d Frericks wrote, in what may be in contention for understatement of the year. It became worse after podcast comments from now-former Bud Light VP of marketing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/two-top-anheuser-busch-execs-behind-mulvaney-partnership-now-job-report\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Alissa Heinerscheid<\/a> \u2014 in which she called the brand\u2019s previous advertising \u201cfratty\u201d and said her mission was to embrace \u201cinclusivity\u201d \u2014 went viral.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">What failure sounds like. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/qitS5f9Yms\">https:\/\/t.co\/qitS5f9Yms<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Catturd  (@catturd2) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/catturd2\/status\/1645378767362088961?\">April 10, 2023<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>\u201cOn April 14th, Whitworth made his first attempt at addressing plunging sales with a flat corporate response that neither mentioned the specific controversy, nor apologized for it,\u201d Frericks wrote.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cInstead of helping, it made things even worse: inflaming both the customers who wanted an apology for the campaign \u2013 and those who were sympathetic to Mulvaney and wanted to see the company defend the influencer.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"zxx\"><a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/oyyfPzd1FM\">pic.twitter.com\/oyyfPzd1FM<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Anheuser-Busch (@AnheuserBusch) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AnheuserBusch\/status\/1646959620437561356?\">April 14, 2023<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Whitworth, Frericks said, had several opportunities to circumvent Bud Light\u2019s year-over-year sales decline, which approached 30 percent by June and which had taken the beer out of its traditional No. 1 sales position, with Mexican brand Modelo Especial replacing it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOn June 28th, Whitworth had one last chance to hit the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/former-anheuser-busch-president-calls-on-brands-ceo-to-resign-in-scathing-letter\/\" title=\"Ex-Anheuser-Busch President demands CEO's resignation in harsh letter.\">game-saving home run<\/a> before the critical July 4th holiday,\u201d Frericks wrote. \u201cHe made his first public appearance since the debacle on CBS Morning News where he was twice asked by hosts if he would send the can to Mulvaney again or if it had been a \u2018mistake.&#8217;\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This was, to Frericks, \u201ca softball question. He should have belted it out of the park.\u201d Instead, \u201cboth times he deflected, with a clearly rehearsed and evasive answer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe should have said: \u2018Of course, it was a mistake. No, we wouldn\u2019t send the can again!\u2019\u201d Frericks wrote. \u201cBut he didn\u2019t. Why?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBecause he\u2019s been paralyzed by corporate America\u2019s forced adoption of \u2018stakeholder\u2019 capitalism, which preaches to companies about why they must serve activists, politicians, non-governmental organizations and all manner of interests \u2013 anyone really apart from their shareholders and customers!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The problem is that, while ESG scores and DEI seminars may look great on paper, companies still have to sell a product or service. In both word and deed, Whitworth and those around him had decimated the sales of their premier product \u2014 and refused to pull out of the the tailspin because to do so would be to offend the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/blackrock-ceo-says-ashamed-role-woke-esg-push-quickly-tries-backtrack\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">asset managers at BlackRock<\/a> and the LGBT community.<\/p>\n<p>However, therein lies the issue with Whitworth\u2019s decision to appease them while trying to put out the fire the Mulvaney crisis has created.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe real shareholders are the firefighters, police officers and doctors, whose life-savings \u2013 held in pensions and 401ks \u2013 are managed by these monster firms,\u201d Frericks wrote. \u201cThese are ordinary Americans \u2013 who don\u2019t care for virtue signaling and money wasting exercises.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And that\u2019s all Whitworth has \u2014 and seemingly can \u2014 offer.<\/p>\n<p>Frericks has sounded the alarm before. Early in the crisis, he told Fox News that \u201cnow is the time to go back and, for companies like Anheuser-Busch, to say that, \u2018Hey, moving forward for brands like Bud Light, we\u2019re not going to be political. We\u2019re not going to get involved in the environmental social governance movement because that\u2019s not what the customer wants.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Early in June, he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/bud-light-cant-recover-within-2-months-will-start-disappearing-store-shelves-former-sales-exec-reveals\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">again rang the alarm bell<\/a> regarding his former company, saying that \u201cAnheuser-Bush needs to figure out a strategy, it needs to make a statement about who their customers are and who they\u2019re going to serve now, and try and regain those customers now in June and July, because by time it\u2019s August, September, it\u2019s too late.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It may only be July, but it\u2019s looking pretty late to everyone \u2014 particularly Frericks.<\/p>\n<p>And data doesn\u2019t lie. On the week ending June 17, the brand suffered its worst year-over-year drop in sales since the Mulvaney crisis began, according to numbers cited by the <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2023\/06\/26\/bud-light-sees-biggest-decline-in-sales-since-dylan-mulvaney\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">New York Post<\/a>. Bud Light sales dropped 28.5 percent against 2022 sales, beating the previous week\u2019s 26.8 percent drop. Both were records for the brand, indicating the problem was getting worse \u2014 and metastasizing to other Anheuser-Busch brands, too.<\/p>\n<p>Nor does the company expect to see sales rebound anytime soon. A Bud Light bottler has shut down two plants, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/bud-lights-dylan-mulvaney-partnership-now-cost-645-people-jobs-report\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">resulting in 645 layoffs<\/a>; according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wral.com\/story\/bud-light-sales-drop-forces-glass-plant-to-cut-production\/20936196\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">WRAL-TV<\/a> in Raleigh, North Carolina, data show the drop was steep enough that bottle production at the plant in Wilson, North Carolina started to be cut dramatically in May. As of mid-July, it will be cut to zero.<\/p>\n<p>Anton Frericks was there from the beginning, it\u2019s worth pointing out. He gave free advice worth far more than that kind of counsel is usually worth. Tens of billions of lost dollars later, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/re-wrote-bud-lights-pitiful-apology-letter-now-mocks-instead-american-people\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Brandon Whitworth<\/a> still isn\u2019t taking it. It\u2019s time for him to join Alissa Heinerscheid and the 645 bottle-plant employees on the unemployment line.<\/p>\n<p>The post <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/former-anheuser-busch-president-calls-brands-ceo-resign-scathing-letter\/\">Former Anheuser-Busch President Calls On Brand&#8217;s CEO to Resign in Scathing Letter<\/a> appeared first on <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\">The Western Journal<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Anson Frericks has been offering Anheuser-Busch InBev free advice since the Dylan Mulvaney crisis in April. His latest suggestion is for the CEO to resign promptly. However, it&#8217;s important to note that free advice is often of little value, and almost any alternative would be more beneficial.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":663,"featured_media":1963240,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[548],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1963239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-conservative-news-daily"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1963239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/663"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1963239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1963239\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1963240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1963239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1963239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1963239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}