Michelle, good to seeyou.

Good to see you.

What, uh, what brings you by MSG?

Today

or

regularly in

general, in general, I, I, it's not, it's not, it's not, it's not often I get to hang out in the suite with you guys.

Uh, this is a great place. Rely, New York Knicks and our partners here in the city, customers, people that come here to watch the games. Today's special, see friends,

have a chat.You're, uh, are you a big, uh, Knicks guy? All right. I don't know how you got me to drink this Michelob Ultra Zero.Uh, it tastes good, but I'm gonna grab, I'm gonna go off script a little bit. I like this neutral stuff after you, sir.Welcome to a new episode of Yahoo Fins's opening bid Unfiltered podcast. I'm Yao Fins, executive editor Brian Sazi, and, uh, it's always a treat for me to get outside the confines of our plush, amazing Yahoo Finance headquarters studios to do a podcast, uh, and this is a real special one for me. We are inside Madison Square Garden, and there's nobody in here in the stands, but me and AB InBev, CEO Michelle Duqueras. It's good to see you.It's good to see you.

Cheers,

um.I've never had a Michelob Ultra Zero before.Like, how fast is this, how fastis this growing?

So this brand specifically triple digits.We launched it over a year ago.Is turned to be had had 1 non-alcohol beer in the US. Fantastic, 29 calories, zero alcohol, beer for every occasion. Tastes like beer, tastes like the Michelob, of course, yeah, of course, great quality. Why,

why do you think that zero category is seeing so muchgrowth?

So I think that there are a couple of things coming together. The number one, to be brutally honest, is that innovation.Brought an incredible difference in the liquids, so we invested a lot out of Belgium, our design and technology center. Today you enjoy these zero alcohol beers with the same taste of the regular beers but without alcohol, and people want to enjoy beer in more occasions.They want to be fit and ready. I know that you're training, so that's why

shout out to the high rocks team. I'm, I'm fit and training. You told me I should be having these things after I finished working out. That's it.

So he hydrates, non-alcohol beer, very healthy. You can take it, 29 calories, so it's a good thing to have on your options, and I think that you can have a health lifestyle. You are training. You are doing everything that you like from working to exercising.Then you can go and take a non-alcoholbeer.

So Michelle, I've, uh, I've seen you all around the world. We've talked in Davos. I've been following. I still remember you got when you got appointed as CEO. It feels like yesterday, maybe it doesn't feel like yesterday to you, but um, where is that? Where are you at in yourReinvigoration of your playbook to, to drive the next era of growth of this company. And really it's an iconic company, not just in the US it's around the world too.

Yes, we have a company that was built over the years, you know, throughMergers and acquisitions, and today we have this global platform, 120 countries.The company has operations physically 135,000 people across 50 countries, and back in 2021, so it was not yesterday, but it is now five years in the making, we have decided that the platform was big enough and we had to go now through a new phase which we call organic growth.And it's different, right? So you come from a history and a culture of mergers and acquisitions, and now you are in this phase of growing brands, connecting with consumers, innovating, and getting the platform to yield more out of the same assets, and I think that is being rewarding.So the company is growing over the last 5 years. We have a midterm outlook, as you know, 4 to 8% in the growth we've been delivering each and every year. We've been innovating a lot, so for example, non-alcohol, but think about ready to drink beverage. I know you are a neutral fan. I'm a neutral. In digital, we have our digital platform this, and all those things are combining on superior products.Great innovation and more opportunities to connect and grow with consumers.

There wasso much, there was so much acquisition activity.Looking in the space of 1520 years ago, how did you know that you had to not necessarily stop doing that, but invest in the brands that you had? Cause that seems to be, that was your first move. You're gonna really focus on innovation. I remember spending time with you back at your headquarters, you were telling me all the new brands you're investing in, and even like focusing on categories beyond beer.

Yeah, we are a house of brands. When you think about our company globally, we have like 500 different brands, 500 because we are in many countries, but the reality is that we have a group of brands, let's say 50 brands, we call them the mega brands, brands that have scale.That fit to many different occasions for consumers.And that we are investing behind in our markets to grow these brands, and they command 80 to 90% of the growth that the company has. They can be some small brands like Neutral and Innovation, or Michela Ultra non-alcohol, or they can be some of the big brands that we have as Michela Ultra, which is the number one brand in the US now. We've been investing with a lot of discipline and consistency.Behind these brands, each of these brands has a platform that can be music, can be sports, can be food, and these platforms we are activating, like executing them at global level. So when you think about Michela Ultra and the Olympic Games, Team USA, we just came out of the celebrations and the whole Olympic Games now during the winter. So the brand is proudly brewed here.And the slogan is superior.Is brewed here, right, so the athletes, the emotions, the training, the sweating, but also the celebration. And when you tap into these territories of these brands, our brands have a lot of opportunities to grow, and we are pursuing these opportunities globally, servicing better consumers and customers, bringing innovation to the market, superior liquids, and more than everything.Uh, enabling moments of celebration, socialization, and friendships.

What I, I don't think people appreciate is the complexity of, of a supply chain of a beer company. Like in the US, how complex is your supply chain, and you still, you still make beer in the US, obviously, right?

So, uh, you can refer as complex, and I, I think that's just like amazing, the fact that we have farmers.In the US in farms because we buy barley, we buy rice. I was the other day in Arkansas with the rice growers, we buy most of the rice, then they grow there. We have in Idaho, the barley suppliers. We have our own farms where we grow hops.Then we produce in the US cans. We buy cans as well, but we produce our own cans, and we have our breweries in the US and our wholesalers. So the logistics is really from the farm.To the tables and bars at home or bars or restaurants, we cover all aspects of that with our partners being farmers, being distributors, being retailers.

How do you know where to spend though? I, I haven't asked this for, how do you know where to spend a good bulk of your time? You're on a farm, you're at a F1 event, you're at a, a football game, a football game. How do you know?What to do and when to doit.

There is a little bit of everything, but at the end, a good day is a day that you spend with your customers.Or learning from consumers or supporting and interacting with your team. So no matter where I go, can be the football game or it can be the trip overseas, always customers, always consumers, always time with the team.

I tried real hard not to call it soccer. I, I triedso hard. You will start callingyou now call it soccer, right? Well, let's look, you're coming up against the World Cup, biggest World Cup ever, um.I'm excited about it. I think the country's really getting, uh, excited about it. What does it mean to the business of a

Budweiser? Uh, so do I. I think that, uh, that is two sides of the World Cup. That is the Michelle, who is the soccer fan, the football fan.

You said soccer, not, just want the record.

We are in the US, it's OK. Uh, it's a lot of it anyway. Uh, so on one side, the fan.I love the games. I love the excitement. I love to watch the match and to see people enjoying celebrating. And on the other side there is the business for us every 40 years, this is the biggest event for sports on Earth, and people are very focused on the country, on the stadium, but actually there is like.A much bigger amount of people who watch the games at bars and make the bar their living room where they meet friends. Sometimes they meet strangers, sometimes they are all supporting the same team, but they don't know each other. Sometimes they are hugging and crying when it's final minutes or final penalty, and this is an emotion that cannot be replicated.It's only when the games start that you see people with this atmosphere and enjoying the game, so I love both sides, the business one, but also as a fan.

Whatis it?Is it a big sales upliftfor you?

It's an important moment for the brands, and during the month that happens depending on the country, you see very big uplifts. So think about Brazil. So this is bigger than life, right? So the whole country stops to watch and then you have places like if you go to Korea, Japan, where people watch and they enjoy the sport.But life continues regardless of what goes on during the World Cup, so the lift can be a good lift globally when we have the events, and the lift is often big for the host country, but it happens globally as well. So it's a, it's a good occasion for us. So

howdo you plan for this type of event, whether it's supply chain or do you spend more time in marketing? Like how is your time spent and how is your team's time spent?

So this is one thing that people sometimes don't know, but it's a great topic to talk because it is a huge amount of people involved on that and believe you or not, but on the day that the last World Cup ended, our plans started to execute here in the US this summer. So we have people that are dedicated in the whole cycle for 4 years.To plan everything from how we change our packaging, how we organize the communication, how we bring customers and consumers from other countries to host them here in the local market to the packaging that we're going to have to the campaigns that we're going to run across the globe because we have a global campaign for Michelob Ultra, a global campaign for Budweiser, but then in Colombia, Agla is the brand and.Belgium Jupiter. How

do you remember all of these names?

Oh, I love all of them.

Do you sign off on all this stuff? Does all this roll up to you?

No, we have a team who works on that, of course, I'm.Looking at everything that the team is doing, some of the big things like the campaign for Michela Boltra maybe in the US or the Global Budweiser campaign or the new package, but we have a team working on that and they know the drill and they work very hard on that.

Do you know if you have a hit marketing campaign before it goes out live?Can you tell?

Sometimes, sometimes we can because sometimes you see something and you say, oh, that's just so good, that's going to be a big hit.Sometimes people tell you that, so we have cases, for example, uh, I'll tell you one that's very interesting. Last year, we were at the wholesaler meeting in the US and we had organized the Super Bowl lineup.And the Super Bowl lineup had Bli, Michelob Ultra, stellarwat, and we showed the Budweiser.Campaign.And at the moment that we put, the whole room went crazy.And I looked towards CO here Brandon, our CMO Marcel, and I told them, get this at the Super Bowl, and there was no spots available. There was no budget to cover for that, and I just told the team, go there, find a spot, buy it because this campaign is going to be a big hit, and became the number one campaign Super Bowl last year.This year was different. I think that we all saw the, the Super Bowl campaign and the moment that we saw, we said, OK,

OK,

OK, just go for it because it's gonna be

great. I'm a pretty, uh, I'm a pretty stoic guy, and I, it's gonna be honest, you know, I'm always honest with my viewers and listeners. I don't, I don't get too emotional, um, don't cry much. I saw your ad, and this is no BS because you're sitting here.That almost made me tear up. I'm watching this, Michelle, I'm watching this horse, and then all of a sudden an eagle pops off and I'm like, oh, this guy, he nailed it. I didn't, I forgot to email you, but I'm like, you nailed thatad.

It was huge. It was huge, and it's incredible because I heard the same feedback from dozens of people. People come to me.Sometimes they know who I am and they say thank you for that. It was great. I felt great. Sometimes they don't know who you are, but they see that you are wearing a jacket that has a Budweiser or a t-shirt. They say, Hey, I saw your commercial. That was great. Thank you for doing that, whatever. And the team who produced, who back at that time, they did a fantastic job, so I'm so proud of them.They did really well.

How, going back to the World Cup, how will you be spending your time, unique event, Obviously you can't go to every single game, you're running a very large, huge, humongous company. Like, what are those few weeks like for you?

They will be.With consumersWith customersWith 4 partners and with 4 teams and it's gonna be like an intense period because you're gonna be doing your normal work everyday job, but then you have to be in Mexico, to be in Canada, to be in the US to host customers, to watch the games, and to leave the intensity of this couple of weeks like you're also a fan too, yeah.So there will be days that they'll be drafted for the games, not for the work, and there will be days that you're gonna be working anyway. So

have you begun planningfor, and this is a couple of years out, the Olympics. Is that a big, is that going to be a big moment for you and have already started to think about this?

We are, we are working.Together with the International Olympic Committee, together with the organizers in LA, and you know that Olympics for us is quite new. We had the Paris summer, now the winter, so we learned a lot on what happens there and what's our role, and the team is going to be prepared, working very hard to, to deliver a great and exceptional experience in LA.

What surprised you about theOlympics?

So many things. I love the spirit, you know, I'm half Greek, so Olympics is very big for us, so friendship, respect, respect, and excellence around the sport, they are big values for the culture, but I think that we, we came with an idea of getting beer to be part of that in a very special way, giving people the visibility of our non-alcohol portfolio.And we end up finding great people to partner with. We brought the non-alcohol beer as a compliment to the whole experience. And if you look, for example, during the Winter Olympics now, we have data, of course, from the concessionaires that they sell beverage.And beer had like a 45% share. Seems good when you include everything coffee, hot chocolate, water, sodas, and people really want to enjoy. They want to watch the games. We know that beer and sports go very well together. It doesn't matter summer, winter. People are engaging with the product and it's a great experience.

I had recently had a conversation with the CEO of a very large energy drink company. I won't mention their name, but they told me they are gaining.Shelf space in convenience stores from beer, and I, I didn't get it at first. I thought about it, I'm like, I guess I can kind of get it. Are you, are you seeing that? And it might that be like consumers just wanting to live a little healthier, or how are you playing in that?

So I know all the data that he's talking about. We have a lot of data, and what I can tell you is that we are growing share of space, and this conversation comes time to time depending on the category, so it would be very hard to say anything without having all the data that they have, right? But I know that energy drinks.are growing, so we know that we have form. It's our own energy drink and it's growing a lot and when I see because they see to one specific shelf.You can see that in these non-alcoholic beverages.Energy drink is gaining space and it's gaining from the traditional non-alcohol beverages there. The beer shelf is slightly different.Maybe we need to check the data at some point, but I see energy drinks growing. We have a farm. It's doing well. They sit on different shelves. I can't comment on that.

Are you?Where are you at with expanding into your like your Beyond Beer portfolio?

So we call Beyond Beer this ready to drink beverage that can be a ready to drink cocktail or a seltzer, uh, or a wine punch, for example, beatbox, and

Ilove their packaging. It's beautiful, yeah,it's great packaging,

and we are at the beginning of that, we started back in 2017 to reorganize this division of our portfolio.Today we are the fastest growing company in this space, but we're still very small. We have brands such as Cuttwater, Neutral, now Beatbox that are all growing double digits, and they are very incremental to our portfolio because they tap into consumers that drink less beer.Or more other beverages and they bring flavor to our portfolio that goes way beyond the traditional beer flavors, so it's incremental, it's growing very fast. We are the leading company now in the US and we have several propositions globally that fit very well for the modern consumer.

Are there more opportunities to add and build on that portfolio, you think?

Yes, because we have a low share.On this space, we are the fastest growing, but it's still the hand wound is very big.

I, uh, I recently had an old guy moment. I went to, uh, my local bar. I don't get out as much as I used to. It's just the reality of my life at my current age, but I realized a lot of folks in there, they were probably under the age of 30, they didn't seem to be drinking like I used to drink when I back in my Bush Light days, um, they were drinking seltzer, like actual seltzer with limon. It was just kind of strange, like.What are you seeing from the next generation of of drinkers? Like, if they're not gonna drink like I did, what does it mean to the business of beer?

So I think that every generation is very unique andThe amount of products today, the repertoire that a consumer has increased, this doesn't mean that people are not enjoying drinking, engaging with beer, and beer is only where we are today because it's evolving, innovating, transforming for over 5000 years. So when you think about beverages and alcohol beverage, beer is back 5000 years in the making.And throughout the years it has been evolving and it evolves in terms of the liquids, the packaging, the occasions. Sometimes you flavor it, sometimes you have less alcohol, more alcohol, but our industry is very dynamic, and that's why again back in 2017 we decided to invest in these ready to drink beverages because there is a space there for innovate and a space to have more consumers participating.And as a beverage company, our company is always participating in that, so beer is at the core. It's who we are, but we offer more than only beer for consumers as well. And the category is growing globally. So beer, if you take any cut you want, is growing like 0.5% in volume in the last five or six years. Revenues grow 5, 5.5% globally.So it's a great category, very big, very profitable for our partners, retailers, and continues to have an incredible.Bread room for growth. This headroom comes from developing markets, developing and emerging markets, and we continue to see growth across the globe.

AreGLP ones something that you spend a lot of time thinking on how to navigate? I mean, they started shots, now they're pills. I don't know if you take one of these pills down one of these. I have no clue, but like, do you.Do you have, is that a major headwind for yourbusiness?

So there is more talk.Then later.And if you think of our business is like.Beer is everywhere.And the participation with consumers is very big. Legal drinking age of consumers drink a beer on your Sunday barbecue or in a happy hour. So usually everything that's happening in the economy, in the society, people correlate with beer. So think about you want or think about people on diets or think about the price of gas at the pump.So all of that has a correlation or a relation with beer, not a correlation. And in the case of GPs, I think that there is a lot of talk about the diets, but the data today does not support the level of impact that the talk has. We continue to monitor that. I think that the penetration today is too small in the market, and we need to see more on what's happening. But again,You are on your diet and you are drinking non alcohol.

Youhave products that cater to this,

so our portfolio caters for many occasions. We have light beers, we have non-alcohol beers, we have regular beers, we have strong beers, so we have a beer for every occasion, so.

I wanted to, uh, you mentioned gas prices too. I, IKnock on wood, you know, I can go to the store, I pick my beer up, um, it's not an affordable luxury for me, it's just, I'll buy it, whatever, I have the money to do it. But I'm realizing that I'm not the norm, and people are struggling out there, like how, you know, how much of a struggle are they right now with gas prices up, they're worried about affordability. Can they still go out there and afford that 12 pack?

As I said before, I think that the economy continues to progress.And it's progressing differently in parts of the country, in parts of the globe, and the inflation over the years after COVID really brought a hit for consumers, and we saw a lot of this last year.Across many categories that include beer, not exclusive to beer, and we of course we price always balancing the costs that we have, but also participation of consumers. We discussed it before we have a portfolio that has premium brands, but we also have more affordable brands on our portfolio, and we keep looking for these opportunities to be interacting and engaging with consumers across all segments.

Do people trade down when things are getting challenging from this Budweiser, traditional Budweiser, is that the premium, and they go down to a Bush Light? Are you seeing that?

In beer it's not really like this. What you see in beer is the behavior of people changing packaging because our packages, they have an architecture that the more cans per pack, for example, the more affordable the price is, because since we have less cost on the packaging, we give more affordability for consumers and you see consumers trading channels.So when you are with higher inflation, you see these big chains growing more.When you have a more stable scenario, you see these more local supermarkets, convenience stores growing more, so beer doesn't really trade out. Trade sometimes up, sometimes a little bit down, but usually the biggest trade that you see are channels and packaging rather than brands.People tend to find the brands that they like on more affordable packaging if they go around and buy more planned purchase rather than impulse purchase.

Acouple of last fun ones for you.5 years or over 5 years into this job, what has surprised you the most about it?

Oh, there's a surprise every day, right? So that's the, the beauty of the job and the, the part that's fun, but I think that the one thing that changed, and everybody talks about this is we came from a period in which people would see big changes and shifts every decade, every 10 years.And if you think about2019 to now.Basically every year we are coming from some disruptions in one shape or form and therefore companies that are more resilient.Teams that are more agile and able to adapt.Categories that areBigger for consumers, more relevant for consumers, and brands that have higher equity, they've been navigating this period is likely better than others. So I think that a big part of a CEO's life and job today is what people call building resilience. Resilience is this ability to withstand the shocks.And continue to move forward, right? And this is somehow what we've been doing, so planning for the long term but also adapting and adjusting for the short term.

Haveyou always been this calm? Every time you, you always seem like he's a really calm, levelheaded guy,

um.I can't say that I'm calm. I don't, I don't know that people would say that I'm calm, but I think a lot about what's happening.And I'm not like impulsive. I like to understand things in context, and I think that this helps. It's like.Grew up in several different places, worked in several different places. I have seen a lot of different experiences, and I know that when you overreact to something, you tend to make bad decisions. So I, I like to make decisions when the time is right. I like to understand what's going on. I like to listen to people, talk to people, and then support their decisions or make decisions with time.It doesn't mean it's slow. It's just take your time to make the decisions.

What wouldyou tell?Knowing what you know now, what would you tell your younger self?When you first started at AB InBev, that that young guy with chemical engineering, that was your degree?Yeah, whatwould you tell that person?Um,

Keep moving forward. Don't give up, no matter what others tell you. Do what's right.

Was there a moment you think helped get you into this seat? You know, we, your career is longer than mine, but I can point to 3 or 4 specific moments that I think got me to this seat. Like, is there a mentor that ushered you up through the doors, so to speak.

Yeah, I think that I have the privilege over the years I'm in this company for over 30 years now. I have had an immense amount of people that I worked with and I could learn from, and I always have trainees every year that come in the company just from graduation, and I often tell them some of the best learnings that I had was with the people who drive the trucks.With the people behind the counter at the bar, with the sales reps that you could see how the reality of dealing with customers and consumers every day is, and they never lose an opportunity.That can help me learning something from the team. So this is, doesn't matter where you are, who you're talking to, try to pay attention because there is something there that you can learn. And of course we all have moments in the career.Right, that are very unique to you, and I worked and lived in three continents over.Several different countries I have seen different realities, and you can always go from these moments where it's difficult, that you have a crisis. Usually there is a big opportunity there for you to do better than others, learn from that crisis and get stronger, or just like getting your team together and make sure that when you are on the other side, you are better than you were before. So yes, many people.That we learn from many occasions that you can get stronger and of course always learning.

Lastly, are you still having a beer a day?Yeah. Still a beer day. AlwaysBudweiser. Always,

um, Budweiser, Michelob Ultra. I'm, I'm very eclectic on this, so, but I, I take my beer every day.

Well, uh, it was good to see you. Cheers to you. You've always made time for me. Uh, it's good to see you here inside of MSG. Uh, I'm totally frozen solid, guys. I mean, that's just, uh, truth. That's where I'm at right now. Should have put a coat on like, uh, Michelle, but I just didn't get that memo. Thanks for tuning in to the latest episode of Opening bid Unfiltered.