Modelo named top-selling beer in US for second consecutive month

Modelo Especial held its title as the top-selling beer on a dollar basis in the U.S. for the second month in a row in June.

The Mexican lager has generated more dollars than any other beer brand in the country during May and June, according to Nielsen data analyzed by Bump Williams Consulting.

The drink outpaced all rivals, including Anheuser-Busch’s Bud Light, which has been the top-selling beer in terms of sales dollars and volume since 2001, according to the consulting firm.

The most recent data shows that Modelo Especial saw an 11.4% increase in dollar sales and a 5.7% increase in volume in the week ending July 1. Over that same time, Bud Light saw a 28.5% decline in sales dollars and a 32% dip in volume, the data showed.

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The backlash that Bud Light and Anheuser-Busch have been experiencing started in early April, not long after the company created and sent custom beer cans to transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney to mark “365 days of girlhood.” Some beer drinkers reacted by swearing off Bud Light, hurting the brand’s sales in recent weeks.

However, Bud Light is “still the largest dollar and volume brand” on a year-to-date basis, Bump Williams Consulting told FOX Business. 

According to the data, Bud Light’s year-to-date market share is sitting around 8.7%. However, Modelo Especial is closing in on the beer with an 8.1% share of the category, according to Bump Williams.

“If Bud Light continues its double-digit declines for the balance of 2023 and Modelo Especial continues to grow at 10% or greater for the balance of the calendar year, then it’s probable that Modelo Especial surpasses Bud Light as the No. 1 selling beer in America on a calendar basis,” Bump Williams, CEO of Bump Williams Consulting, told FOX Business.

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Last month, Constellation Brands CEO Bill Newlands said its Modelo Especial brand becoming the top-selling beer in the U.S. came “a little sooner” than the company anticipated.

Constellation Brands and the president of its beer division, Jim Sabia, have “often said that that was going to happen in the next few years, but obviously, it happened a little sooner than we had anticipated,” Newlands said.

During an earnings call in June, Newlands also told analysts that the company’s beer business “delivered strong growth for the quarter.”

Constellation’s beer segment saw first-quarter net sales of $2.1 billion, a 10.6% increase from the $1.9 billion it reported the same time a year ago. This bump was driven in part by the momentum of Modelo Especial, which saw “double-digit dollar sales growth in tracked channels.”

AB InBev CEO Michel Doukeris said during the company’s most recent earnings call that the “Bud Light volume decline in the U.S. over the first three weeks of April, as publicly reported” represents around 1% of its overall global volumes for that period.

“With this perspective, and in the context of our global business, we believe we have the experience, the resources and the partners to manage this,” Doukeris said.

The Associated Press and FOX Business’ Aislinn Murphy contributed to this report.