Bottling plants shut down after Bud Light sales tank amid Dylan Mulvaney partnership

A global glass producer that contracts with Anheuser-Busch will be closing two of its locations and laying off over 600 employees. This comes amid declining sales the beer giant has suffered following Bud Light’s disastrous partnership with Trans TikTok star Dylan Mulvaney.

According to WRAL, the Ardagh Group announced that in July they will be closing their plants in North Carolina and Louisiana in July which will put approximately 645 employees out of work.



Though the company did not say the reason for the closures, WRAL reported that the plants are shuttering because of falling Bud Light sales, following the nationwide boycott of the product after the Mulvaney partnership.

An investigation by WRAL revealed that workers at both plants have noticed decreased production after the beer company partnered with Mulvaney, a biological male that identifies as female to celebrate "365 Days of Girlhood."

One worker told the outlet that the “Bud Light situation” led to a drop in demand, forcing the Louisiana and North Carolina plants to put take some of their machines offline.

An internal memo from Ardagh Group acquired by WRAL stated that executives planned to shut down the two plants "due to slow sales with Anheuser-InBev."

Employees told the outlet that a large part of the work at those plants was producing bottles for Bud Light and Budweiser.

Machine repair mechanic, David Williams told the outlet that their manager confirmed that the closures were due to the Bud Light boycott, "Because of Budweiser no longer selling the bottle, they no longer needed our product."

Bud Light tanked since the partnership with Mulvaney. The social media influencer shared images and a video on Instagram in April of a personalized Bud Light can with the influencer’s face on it in the style of a March Madness can celebrating Mulvaney's "365 days of girlhood."

Immediately the company faced backlash and a boycott began. The boycott was so severe Bud Light’s sales collapsed as well as other Anheuser Busch brands.

According to an analysis of Nielsen data by consulting company Bump Williams, Bud Light’s sales by May were down over 28 percent, and later that month the company lost its top-selling American beer title to Modelo Especial.

As a result, Bud Light has billions of dollars in market value and has been forced to heavily discount its beer and offer rebates that make the brand "basically free to the consumers" in some markets, according to Fox News.

The beermaker has also increased its marketing budget and launched a new summer ad campaign. 

However, that has not stopped the sales slump. According to NiselsenIQ data provided to FOX Business by Bump Williams Consulting, sales continues to fall as Bud Light sales were down 24.4 percent compared to a year ago for the week ending June 3. Modelo Especial also passed Bud Light to take the #1 Selling Beer Brand by dollar for the four-week and single-week period ending June 3. 

Last week, Mulvaney slammed Bud Light for a lack of support after their marketing partnership disaster.