Guest Contributor – Chemist – 11MAY2023 – Tone Deaf

Mark Twain once said that history doesn’t always repeat itself, but it often rhymes.

I think we may be seeing that rhyming with AB InBev and Budweiser.

I believe it was in the late 1980s that Tomkins PLC, a British conglomerate, bought Smith & Wesson.

They did not understand the US market, or the firearms market or firearms for that matter.

They proceeded to make a number of missteps, not the least of which was to be the only major gun maker to sign on with Clinton’s AWB, HUD restrictions and other anti-second amendment policies.

This led to reduced market share and loss of revenue and negative profits. Things got so bad that the US company Saf-T-Hammer bought the company for $45 million – a fraction of what Tomkins paid.

Now we have the spectacle of InBev, a Belgium company, who purchased Anheuser-Busch a few years ago. InBev clearly does not understand the US market as demonstrated by their partnering with a transsexual to try to sell beer to American blue collar workers.

Bud light sales are down over 25% and a country star recently couldn’t even give it away at a concert.

Now the disease appears to be spreading to other AB brands including Michelob and Budweiser.

I wonder if things will get so bad that, like Tomkins, InBev ends up dumping AB at a massive loss.

Truth be told, it would not hurt my feelings.