Molson Coors gains market share as consumers shift away from Bud Light

Brewer Molson Coors said on Tuesday that it expects to maintain its market share gains in the year ahead.

The company, which makes Coors Light and Miller Lite, reported strong fourth-quarter earnings Tuesday as net sales for 2023 grew 9.3%. Those revenue gains were in large part tied to consumers migrating away from AB InBev‘s Bud Light products after boycotts began last April.

“Molson Coors was well positioned to benefit from the significant shifts in consumer purchasing habits,” the company said in its earnings release, though it didn’t directly refer to the boycotts.

It was a return to profit for Molson Coors from a loss a year ago. The company reported net income of $103.3 million, or 48 cents a share, for the quarter, compared with a loss of $590.5 million, or $2.73 a share, during the same period last year.

Molson said its underlying earnings were $1.19 per share, which outpaced the $1.12 per share analysts were expecting, according to LSEG, formerly known as Refinitiv.

CEO Gavin Hattersley shared his confidence in the company’s plan to maintain its leadership in the beer category on the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call.

“The gains we’ve seen in our core brands have been consistent for over nine months,” Hattersley said. “We’re growing in every region, every channel, with every major customer in the United States, and at this point, we believe that the shifts in the U.S. beer industry are permanent.”

Molson also invested a significant amount of capital in the fourth quarter, spending nearly 19% more on marketing and administrative costs to achieve those gains.

The company was among the advertisers that spent big on Sunday’s Super Bowl game, with a commercial featuring LL Cool J and the icy Coors Light train. For the second consecutive year, the average cost of a 30-second ad spot was $7 million.

“We invested strongly behind our brands, increasing marketing spend…