USA: AB InBev launches Bud Light Lime Straw-Ber-Rita

Nearly a year after launching its successful Bud Light Lime Lime-A-Rita, Anheuser-Busch InBev is launching Bud Light Lime Straw-Ber-Rita, St. Louis Business Journal reported on March, 25.

Bud Light Lime Straw-Ber-Rita, an 8 percent alcohol-by-volume malt beverage, blends the taste of Bud Light Lime with the taste of a strawberry margarita.

Bud Light Lime Lime-A-Rita hit shelves in April 2012 and became the leading flavored malt beverage brand in eight months, according to AB InBev officials, selling more than 500,000 barrels in the period since its launch. Company officials would not disclose how much AB InBev is spending to launch Bud Light Lime Straw-Ber-Rita.

The new brand will be available in 12 packs of 8 oz. cans; four packs of 16 oz. cans; and in 24 oz. cans.

In anticipating first-quarter short-term pressure on consumer disposable income, Anheuser-Busch InBev planned to focus on its “premiumization strategy” of selling more expensive types of beer and introducing such new products, CFO Felipe Dutra had said during a fourth-quarter conference call.

St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch is part of Belgium-based Anheuser-Busch InBev, which reported revenue of $39.8 billion in 2012.

27 March, 2013