Anson Frericks Archives

These are the top 5 business stories you consumed in 2024

December 20, 2024
We made it through another election year where the economy was the top issue for voters. So which business stories grabbed you the most this year?

We know you came to Straight Arrow News for the unbiased, straight facts. Here are the top five business stories you watched and read at SAN.com.

#5: Progress or poverty? Patience running out for Argentina’s Milei 1 year in

We had enough to worry about here with the U.S. economy, but what really grabbed your attention was an economic experiment happening in South America. Voters in Argentina had just elected a brash, unconventional choice for president in Javier Milei.

He’s the guy who promised to take a chainsaw to the economy and carried a chainsaw at rallies. He has a friendship with President-elect Donald Trump and has been called a “mini Trump” in the past.

A year following his election, SAN checked in with economists to grade Milei’s year. Despite the poverty rate under his policies spiking to include more than half the population, he’s made serious progress on inflation and the economy is starting to grow. There’s real hope he can turn things around there if the people of Argentina don’t run out of patience.

#4: Warren Buffett keeps selling Apple stock to hoard cash. But why?

When Warren Buffett makes money moves, the world pays attention. So when financial disclosures showed he was regularly selling Apple stock and hoarding cash, you wanted to know why — or rather, what he knew.

“We will have Apple as our largest investment,” the Berkshire Hathaway CEO said in May. “But I don’t mind at all, under current conditions, building the cash position. I think when I look at the alternative of what’s available in the equity markets, and I look at the composition of what’s going on in the world, we find it quite attractive.”

There it is from the horse’s mouth. However, an analyst quoted in our story speculated the Apple sale might have more to do with the death of Buffett’s right-hand man, Charlie Munger, who may have always been more comfortable with the company.

So far in 2024, Apple’s share price is up 36%.

#3: Conservatives want to give Dunkin’ Donuts the ‘Bud Light treatment’

The boycott of Bud Light was a huge business story in 2023, and by 2024, the beer still hadn’t recovered. But this year, conservatives found a new target in Dunkin’ Donuts and set out to give it the “Bud Light Treatment.”

The hashtag #BoycottDunkinDonuts splattered across social media after the CEO of Rumble said Dunkin’s parent company refused to advertise on the site because of its “right wing culture.” Rumble is a conservative counterpart to YouTube.

The boycott proved to be no Bud Light. Former Anheuser-Busch executive Anson Frericks correctly predicted in our story that the momentum would fizzle out because Dunkin is a privately-held company. Unlike with Bud Light, there’s no public data and regular industry reports to reinforce the success of the boycott.

#2: The US breached $34 trillion in national debt. Here’s who owns every dime.

Your No. 2 story is a topic I could talk about every day of every year and never run out of things to say. In fact, there are a lot of reasons to talk about it right now. We’re talking about the U.S. national debt, which is at $36 trillion

We started the year by breaching $34 trillion in debt and set out to tell you who holds it all.

We knew you had a serious interest in which foreign countries hold the bag. Japan has the biggest purse, followed by China, then the U.K. But foreign governments account for less than a quarter of the whole pie. Private investors hold the biggest share, followed by foreign countries, U.S. government accounts and the Federal Reserve.

#1: Boeing strike strategy ‘baffles’ top aviation analyst. Where do talks go next?

When Boeing machinists walked off the job for the first time in 16 years, many thought the strike would be a quick one. But weeks in, management completely botched negotiations by releasing details of an offer to the media before the union had responded.

“I thought the arrival of new management with a lot of experience and understanding in the industry would make things different, but that doesn’t appear to be the case at all, I’m afraid,” said Richard Aboulafia, a top aviation analyst and managing director of Aerodynamic Advisory.

The story “Boeing strike strategy ‘baffles’ top aviation analyst” is at the top of our list. It would be nearly another month after this interview before machinists voted to return to work.

In the end, workers got Boeing up from a 25% raise to 38% over four years. It was new CEO Kelly Ortberg’s first test in a long line of challenges we’ll be talking about for years to come.
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Conservatives want to give Dunkin’ Donuts the ‘Bud Light treatment’

August 9, 2024
Conservatives want to give Dunkin’ Donuts the Bud Light treatment. Calls to boycott the coffee giant’s more than 13,000 locations are splattered across social media with the hashtag #BoycottDunkinDonuts.

It all started when Chris Pavlovski, the CEO of Rumble, YouTube’s conservative counterpart, said Dunkin’ didn’t want to advertise on his site because of its “right wing culture.”

His post revealed what appears to be a private email with someone from Dunkin’s parent company Inspire Brands. The email reads, “To be honest, I would be opposed to showing up on the current version of the platform – the right wing culture of the site is too polarizing from a brand suitability standpoint today.”

https://twitter.com/chrispavlovski/status/1821394843018392044

Pavlovski said Rumble pitched Dunkin’ because “Rumble over indexes with coffee consumption.”

Rumble joined a separate antitrust lawsuit instigated by X against the World Federation for Advertisers, accusing the trade group and certain companies of collectively boycotting conservative sites. Dunkin’ Donuts and its parent company are not named in that suit.

“If you’re an advertiser and you don’t want to advertise on Rumble or X, that’s totally fine, you have the option to do that,” Pavlovski said on Fox Business, distinguishing between individual advertising decisions versus a collective group boycott.

While in Pavlovski’s own words, Dunkin’ has the option not to advertise on Rumble, he also has the option to publicly out the company for that decision.

Conservative boycotters hope America chooses not to run on Dunkin’. They’re a force to be reckoned with: Bud Light still hasn’t recovered from its decision to do a brand partnership with transgender TikTok star Dylan Mulvaney more than a year ago. But will a dunk on Dunkin’ be as successful?

Straight Arrow News tapped former Anheuser Busch executive Anson Frericks, who was critical of Bud Light’s botched boycott response, for his insights.

He said boycotts need two things to be successful: One is a boycotted product that is easily replaced with other options, and the other is that the boycotters feel like they’re having an impact.

“Now in this case for Dunkin’ Donuts, there’s definitely easily available options that are not Dunkin’ Donuts,” Frericks said. “People can go across the street to 7-Eleven to get coffee. They can go to local coffee shops, local donut shops. So there’s readily available other options that are there and I think some customers, they will leave. So that’s not good for Dunkin’.

“But I don’t think that this is one’s going to be sustained like the Bud Light one. Bud Light sales are still down 30% the year after they partnered with Dylan Mulvaney, partly because people felt that they had an impact.

“And that’s because Bud Light and Anheuser Busch are publicly traded companies and their data is released on a quarterly basis about how their sales were impacted and also released on a weekly basis because there are organizations that get the grocery store data, they get convenience store data, and they can show that the sales are down.

“Dunkin’, on the other hand, is a privately held company. It’s owned by Inspire Brands so they don’t have to report how sales are doing on a quarterly basis. And since most of their products are sold through their own stores, there’s not easily or readily available data that’s going to show the impact of sales.

“That’s gonna starve this story of the news cycle and the news media, unfortunately. And probably lucky for Dunkin’ that this is probably going to die out, although in the future, I think they should be more careful not get involved in these sort of situations and basically say that they’re not going to advertise to half the population because they are going to lose some customers. I just don’t know for how long.”

In Frericks opinion, Dunkin’ Donuts should not stay silent and try to let this blow over.

“I think what Dunkin’ can do is just come out and be super clear early on and say, ‘Guys, we made a mistake.’ I don’t know who did this at Dunkin’ Donuts where they said, ‘We don’t want to associate with right-wing media.’ You just say, ‘Hey, listen, we want all customers. We’re Dunkin’ Donuts. We don’t care what political spectrum you are. We want people that love our coffee and love our brands.’ I think as long as they do that, I think this will blow over pretty quickly,” Frericks said. “And then they just need to be clear moving forward that they’re going to advertise to all their customers across whatever platforms those might be.”

As for concerns Dunkin’ might have that its ads pop up with content it feels hurts its brand image, Frericks said there are always ways around that.

“They should just be very simple on Rumble. Like, ‘Hey, we want to be on Rumble, but we want to advertise on videos about people that are eating donuts or drinking coffee,’ he said. “You don’t have to mention Alex Jones. You don’t have to mention the other people. Just be clear about the videos that you do want to have. And then, if you want to avoid certain, more political-type figures, that’s okay. They can avoid certain political figures, but I wouldn’t necessarily avoid platforms.”
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How Mexican beer Modelo Especial shot to the top thanks to Bud Light boycott

August 9, 2023

When beer drinkers soured on Bud Light following a controversial promotion with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney, it was clear Bud Light’s closest rivals — Coors Light and Miller Lite — would benefit. But before long, it was a Mexican lager on everyone’s lips.

In the weeks following Bud Light’s dramatic decline, Constellation Brands’ Modelo Especial surged to the top of the list, ending Bud Light’s two-decade reign as America’s best-selling beer. But the overnight sensation is not an overnight success.

“Modelo has certainly been a rising star in the beer industry for a number of years,” Brewers Association Chief Economist Bart Watson said.

There’s a new ‘rey’ of beers

Watson said Modelo Especial has been on Bud Light’s tail for some time, but most in the industry thought a takeover of the throne was at least a few years away, if not half a decade.

“I think the timing surprised everyone,” he said. “The changes in the last six months have been pretty dramatic and not something we’ve really seen before in the beer industry. But the overall trend was clear that Mexican imports, particularly Modelo, have been on the rise for a while, and premium lights have been slowly declining as they’re displaced by higher-priced beers.”

Since 2000, Americans are steadily drinking less beer per person. U.S. adults on average went from drinking more than 31 gallons of beer per year in 2000 to less than 25 gallons per year by 2022, according to data from the Beer Institute and Census Bureau compiled by the Brewers Association.

But while the amount of beer consumed is shrinking, imported beer is on the rise, with Mexican imports doubling from 2013 to 2022, pulling business away from premium lights like Bud Light.

Bud Light’s long decline

“I don’t think that it’s any secret that Bud Light has been in decline for a number of years now,” former Anheuser-Busch executive Anson Frericks said. “But they were still the No. 1 brand and there’s no reason that they couldn’t be the No. 1 brand and turn the company around.”

Frericks was president of Anheuser-Busch Sales and Distribution Co. before leaving in 2022 to start the anti-ESG asset management fund Strive with now-Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy. He said Bud Light’s marketing efforts failed to find the right recipe for growth.

“What it takes is having great people, great marketing campaigns talking about what the brand is, making sure you hold onto the loyal customers that you do have and make Bud Light approachable for a new generation as well,” Frericks said.

Bud Light’s promotional stumble in April cost the brand a chunk of its loyal customer base.

“It’s pretty clear there’s been a permanent share loss here,” Watson said.

A taste of opportunity for Modelo’s maker

Bud Light parent company Anheuser-Busch moved to buy Grupo Modelo in 2012, but in 2013, the Department of Justice sued to block the sale, claiming it gave Anheuser-Busch too much control of the U.S. beer market.

To quash the antitrust complaint, AB InBev agreed to sell Modelo’s U.S. business to Constellation Brands, giving the wine and spirits producer control of Modelo, Corona and Pacifico in the U.S.

“So Constellation was handed this brand that really had a lot of momentum already. You had a lot of Hispanic customers that were coming into the U.S. Those Hispanic consumers, they knew Modelo from being in Mexico, so they had a lot of underlying tailwinds,” Frericks said. “So they benefited from those tailwinds but then also started advertising that brand to people outside that traditional Hispanic consumer base.”

Remember Frericks’ formula: Hold onto the loyal customer base while expanding advertising and distribution to a new audience.

“They started seeing the brand show up at their grocery stores, convenience stores, because it was distributed more broadly. A lot of the marketing campaigns they did were very good,” Frericks said.

But no one could have anticipated the free advertising Modelo Especial would get week after week with Bud Light’s tailspin.

“People have talked about it being the largest brand now in the U.S. That’s something that traditionally would not be covered within the business realm and now, all of a sudden, every single week, people are talking about Modelo, its growth,” Frericks said.

The question now is whether Constellation Brands can turn a summer of success into sustained beer supremacy. Modelo may be winning the summer, but Bud Light is still America’s best-selling beer for the year.
They said boycotts rarely work. This is why Bud Light is different.

August 4, 2023

When conservatives first shunned America’s best-selling beer Bud Light following the brand’s promotional beer can made for transgender TikTok influencer Dylan Mulvaney, experts quickly pointed out across the media that boycotts rarely work. But week after week, Bud Light’s beer sales plunged compared with the year before.

Less than two weeks into the controversy, Anheuser-Busch shares had lost billions in market capitalization. Two months in, Bud Light lost its two-decade reign as the nation’s best-selling beer to Modelo Especial. Later, Anheuser-Busch reported plans to lay off hundreds of corporate employees.

There are two reasons the Bud Light boycott had the recipe for success when brand boycotts usually fail, according to former Anheuser-Busch executive and current Strive Asset Management President Anson Frericks. First, customers have options.

“Everywhere you have Bud Light, you also have Coors Light, Miller Lite, Yuengling, and for the vast majority of customers, they can’t really tell the difference in those brands,” Frericks said. “It’s water, it’s barley, it’s hops. Really the only thing that distinguishes those brands is the actual brand itself and what they stand for.”

Second, boycotters are getting constant feedback that their actions are having an impact. It’s not like when they boycott Target and have to wait three months for quarterly earnings to come out.

“In the beer industry, there’s data that’s reported every single week from large retail data, Nielsen, IRI, etc., where they’re reporting what the actual sales numbers are,” said Frericks, who was president of Anheuser-Busch Sales and Distribution Co. before leaving the company in 2022. “So every week, there’s this new news cycle that kicks off showing, is Bud Light down 25%, is it down 30%, is it down 27%, which almost feeds on itself.”

Anson Frericks co-founded the anti-ESG asset management fund Strive with now-Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy. He insists consumers want cold beer without a side of controversy, and that’s what’s keeping Bud Light sales swirling down the drain.

For instance, for the week ending July 22, nearly three months into the boycott, Bud Light sales volume is still down 29.3% compared with the year before, while Coors Light, Miller Lite and Yuengling all saw double-digit gains, according to Nielsen IQ data analyzed by Bump Williams Consulting.

While Modelo Especial took the top spot in recent weekly and monthly sales, year to date, Bud Light is still the best-selling beer, but Modelo is closing the gap, Bump Williams told Straight Arrow News.

The boycott has also put a major dent in Anheuser-Busch InBev’s earnings. On Thursday, the company said U.S. revenue fell by 10.5% last quarter, while U.S. operating profits dropped by more than 28%. Still, as a whole, the company actually beat forecasts.

“What people have to remember is that Anheuser-Busch InBev is a massive global organization where they have operations in Asia, in Africa, in Europe and South America,” Frericks said. “The North American business unit really only accounts for about a third of the profits of the company. Two-thirds of it is outside the U.S. and those business units outside the U.S. are doing very well.”

“That being said, the stock is still off 15% since this controversy happened,” he continued. “So even though they might be okay from a profitability standpoint globally, this has not been a good company from a shareholder perspective as they’ve missed out on a lot of the market gains this year and they’ve also missed out relative to many of their competitors.”

To compare stock performance, Constellation Brands, Inc., which carries Modelo Especial and Corona Extra, is up 19% over the same time period, while Molson Coors, which carries Coors and Miller, is up 26%.

A month ago, AB InBev launched a public relations campaign highlighting the 65,000 Americans working behind the brand, but it has done little to bring naysayers around.

“To redeem themselves, Anheuser-Busch, they have to take clear accountability for why they got themselves into this mess in the first place,” Frericks said. “And the only way to do that is actually attack it head on, which is the one thing that they have not been doing.”