A-B Posts Tough Q2

Anheuser-Busch released their second quarter sales and earnings, and it wasn't too pretty, although they maintain that they achieved their main objective: to stop market share erosion. A-B's domestic shipments were down 3.7%, and distributor sales-to-retailers were down 0.2% against a fairly easy comp, signifying a significant reduction in distributor inventories (down by over a day). INVENTORY REDUCTION..IT'S ABOUT TIME. The inventory reduction was the right thing to do for distributors after a shameful although probably unintentional inventory build over