ABINBEV CASE
1) Defining the managerial problem
Key issues: ABInbev is a global market player. During the years, it has acquired and merged with a lot of beer companies. This practice symbolizes a pillar of the company’s strategy: developing brand portfolio. Nowadays, the company possesses more than 200 brands.
Nevertheless, the company has now entered a lot of markets and it is present in the most important countries. In addition, the beer market in Western Europe and US is now mature, even decreasing. Consequently, the big issue for ABInbev it is how can the firm grow in a mature market when it has already possessed the local favorite beers in all countries in which it competes and has bought huge amount of breweries?
Problem Statement: How can ABInbev still grow in the long-term view?
2) Analysis of the situation
What are the market trends in the beer industry?
First of all, we decided to examine the beer industry trends in order to understand better the environment in which ABInbev evolves. We observed that, in terms of supplier revenues, the beer market in USA has fallen from 56.0% in 1999 to 47.8% in 2014 (Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, 2015). This decline is even more evident in the light beer category. In contrast, the spirits or liquor market share has been consistently rising.

We observed also that the number of young drinkers who prefer beer was down from 71% in the early 1990s to 41% in 2012–2013 (Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, 2015). This represents a significant issue given that young male adults are the largest beer consumers What about other countries than the United States? The decreasing consumption of beer is common also in Latin America and Europe where ABInBev have most of its market shares.
Why is beer consumption declining? Beer consumption has been declining for several reasons that range