Anheuser-Busch InBev buys influencer’s canned wine company
The world’s largest brewer, Anheuser-Busch In Bev, has acquired a wine company launched on social media that sells canned wine to millennial drinkers (Bloomberg).
- AB InBev buys Babe wine, launched in 2015 by Instagram influencer Josh Ostrovsky, AKA ‘The Fat Jewish’
- Company sells canned wine, with its main ‘Babe’ brand making up 95% of sales
- Brewer hopes to grow sales in category with few standout brands
- “We think this is the right time to capitalise on what’s going on in canned wine space and wine in general,” – AB InBev chief US sales officer, Brendan Whitworth
Ofstrovsky said he launched the brand aiming to be the Bud Light of canned wine. Now it is. Meanwhile, beer sales remain in decline as wine and spirits gain. Anheuser-Busch hopes to boost sales by harnessing its distribution network, and presumably, heavier marketing. It will be interesting to see which channels it opts for, given Babe’s Instagram roots and whether millennial customers care that their canned wine is now owned by a corporation.
Anheuser-Busch’s deal for Babe was led by its ZX Ventures incubator unit, which has also bought up other growth categories taking a similar approach – such as That Boutique-y Gin Co (which is coming to ANZ soon). The Ventures unit has also outlined how the brewer plans to go significantly beyond beer (it has invested in plant-based protein and fibre smoothie maker Canvas) and potentially beyond drinks in a quest for growth areas within “products, services and technologies that … offer the world what it hasn’t yet even imagined.”
