USA, NC & LA: Glass bottling plants forced to cut production due to plummeting Bud Light sales

Bud Light's sales have plummeted so much that a glass bottling company was forced to shut down two of its plants and lay off nearly 650 employees, the Daily Mail reported on July 2.

The Ardagh Group, one of the largest glass producers in the world, announced last week it was shuttering its Wilson, North Carolina, and Simsboro, Louisiana, plants on July 17. The Wilson plant employed nearly 400 people, and the Simsboro plant had 245 — all of whom now find themselves without jobs.

The company did not cite a reason for the closures in its statement, just saying it was part of a 'multi-year performance optimization program.'

But an investigation by WRAL found Ardagh was forced to close the plants due to declining sales of Bud Light — one of its major contractors.

The one-time beer giant has lost its reputation as America's top-selling beer amid a boycott from both leftists and conservatives over its partnership with controversial transgender TikToker Dylan Mulvaney in April.

Mulvaney, 26, recently slammed the company for not supporting her amid the backlash to her March Madness ad, prompting the beer company to double down on its support for the LGBTQIA community.

Workers at both the North Carolina and Louisiana bottling plants have said they have faced decreased production since Mulvaney's promotion was posted online in early April.

Both plants were forced to put some of their machines offline amid the decreased demand, which was 'of course, being pointed towards the Bud Light situation,' James Munhall, a journeyman machine repair mechanic, told WRAL.

By May 18, an internal memo obtained by the news station, company executives said they would shut down the two plants 'due to slow sales with Anheuser-InBev,' the parent company of Budweiser and Bud Light.

Longtime employees explained that the majority of their business was making bottles for Budweiser and Bud Light.

They said at a meeting inside the North Carolina plant last week, the plant manager told them the boycott was forcing them to shut down.

'Because of Budweiser no longer selling the bottle, they no longer needed our product,' David Williams, a machine repair mechanic, told WRAL.

The beer brand saw its sales drop 28.5 percent in the week ending June 17 – one of the worst weeks since the campaign aired in April.

It's a deeper drop from the week ending on June 10, which saw a 26.8 percent drop, according to Bump Williams Consulting and NielsenIQ.

The new low beats the previous worst - an almost 26 percent drop- for the week ending May 25.

Those declining sales figures apparently exacerbated ongoing supply-chain issues at the glass factories.

In a February sales call, Ardagh — which is headquartered in Luxembourg — announced that North America saw a 9 percent drop in shipments and falling revenue.

When announcing the closures last week, the company simply said: 'Our multi-year performance optimization program, involving targeted investments in enhanced capacity and ongoing cost optimization, underpins our ability to continue to provide existing and prospective customers with high quality American-made sustainable glass packaging.'

It added existing customers will continue to be supplied from alternative locations in the network, according to the Ruston Leader.

Meanwhile, employees at the Wilson plant say their union is negotiating a severance package while they struggle to find another good-paying union job.

Many said it was their second plant closed by Ardagh in the past decade.

'They're descendants of the family that's also worked in the industry,' Munhall said.

'Not only are you killing an employee's job, you're killing his family, his chances at sending his kids to college.'

03 July, 2023