Anheuser-Busch reports increased revenues following World Cup partnership

Hannah Wyman, St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Jul 30, 2026

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ST. LOUIS — The World Cup and a focus on premium beer brands helped to buoy sales, Anheuser-Busch InBev leaders reported Thursday.

For its most recent quarter, ending June 30, revenue grew 5.6% — $1.65 billion — to $16.66 billion, compared to the same period last year, beating analysts' expectations of $16.29 billion.

Volumes were up 0.9%, driven by a 1.1% rise in beer, with record-high second-quarter volumes in Mexico, Colombia and Ecuador, Michel Doukeris, A-B InBev CEO, told investors on an earnings call.

This follows A-B InBev’s first-quarter earnings that also saw a rise in beer sales for the first time in years.

“The momentum of our business continued in the second quarter, while the consumer environment remains dynamic, the consistent execution of our strategy and investment in our mega brands and mega platforms enabled us to deliver solid top- and bottom-line performance,” Doukeris said Thursday morning.

Beer performance in the United States for the quarter was led by Michelob Ultra, Busch Light and Busch Light Apple, which were the top 3 volume-share gainers in the industry, A-B InBev reported. The company’s “Beyond Beer” portfolio (cocktails in a can, hard seltzers, spritzers and more) saw the percentage of revenue growth in the mid-70s, led by Cutwater Spirits, which saw revenue growth in the triple digits.

A-B InBev’s non-beer drinks saw its percentage of revenue growth in the mid-30s, led by Michelob Ultra Zero.

However, sales to retailers declined almost 2% and sales to wholesalers fell by 0.6% amid a soft market.

And beer volumes were down in China by 9.7%, which leaders attributed to bad weather and a constrained consumer environment.

“We are of course not happy with our performance in China,” Doukeris said. “We need to look now to the second half of the year to continue to do better on what we can control, which is our execution and market share, and see how the industry will evolve.”

A-B InBev reported success as the official beer partner of the FIFA World Cup. Doukeris said the company leveraged the soccer tournament to roll out its top-selling Michelob Ultra across the Americas and in countries where it had not previously been available, including Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay. As a result, 40% of Michelob Ultra’s growth came from outside the U.S.

“The rollout of the brand is very strategic across the Americas during FIFA [and] will be one of the best outcomes of this investment that we've made for FIFA,” Doukeris said. “The sales on the concessionaries were above and beyond expectations. We could have had more if the U.S. could have gone further in the competition, if the Brazilian team had performed better, equally to Mexico, Colombia.”

A-B started in St. Louis in 1852 and was bought by now-parent company Belgium-based Anheuser-Busch InBev in 2008. A-B is known for brands like Bud Light, Budweiser, Michelob Ultra and Busch Light. The company has a dozen breweries in the U.S.

Its St. Louis operations are located at 1200 Lynch Street and its campus includes the Lyon Schoolhouse Museum and a brew house.

Last month, the company announced that it was investing more than $20 million in its Soulard campus and other Missouri facilities, including a can manufacturing plant in Arnold. The funding is part of A-B's $600 million investment in its U.S. operations across 2025 and 2026.