A-B On Spirits Rivals: “We Are the Competition”

Dear Client: Results in the U.S. – which represent around 10-15% of Anheuser-Busch InBev's global business – got some air time on yesterday's ABI Q2 call, which touched Mich Ultra momentum, RTD run room, and the quarterly puts and takes stateside. Recall, after posting slight depletion growth in Q1 (+0.3%), A-B's U.S. depletions slipped back into decline in Q2 (-1.9%), though the company continued to say it "outperformed" a soft industry. Shipments improved sequentially, declining 0.6% vs. a 3.2% decline