Is it possible that Anheuser-Busch InBev’s (AB InBev’s) penny-pinching ways are killing the global beer market? Perhaps the business needs more romance and flair than allowed for by the zero-based budgeting style of the Brazilians. As one US commentator said mournfully after InBev swallowed Anheuser Busch back in 2008, the industry really is just about persuading people your particular beer brand is the most refreshing way to get ethanol into your system. Sounds easy, but persuasion costs money. Or it could just be that the global beer market is in the downward phase of a long-drawn-out cycle. Global beer production reached a peak in 2013. In 2014, it declined for the first time in decades and has continued downward since. AB InBev has two options: it can splash out huge amounts of money to encourage more people to drink more beer or cut costs at an even grimmer pace. For now, it seems to have chosen the latter. Its latest quarterly figures show most damage was suffered in its "home...
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