Anheuser-Busch InBev is planning to increase production of Michelob Ultra in the US amid the volume gains recently seen by the brand.
In a statement yesterday (6 January), AB InBev said it is pouring $30m into its brewery and can plant in Jacksonville, Florida.
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The funds will be used to upgrade brewing tanks and bottling lines.
The aim is to “fuel” higher output of Michelob Ultra, which is the “top-selling” beer in the US by volume, the brewer said.
Brendan Whitworth, the CEO of AB InBev’s US arm Anheuser-Busch, said: “Investing in our Jacksonville facilities enables us to brew more of the highest-quality American beers that consumers love, including Michelob Ultra, the number-one, top-selling and fastest-growing beer in America. Investments like these are incredibly important because they help us to enhance our operations while also sustaining jobs and driving local economic growth in the communities where we operate.”
Last month, AB InBev said it would close breweries in Fairfield, California and in Merrimack, New Hampshire. The company also plans to sell a brewery in Newark, New Jersey to Goodman Group.
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By GlobalDataAround 475 staff were affected, though the company said it would offer all employees “a full-time role elsewhere in our US operations”.
At the time, AB InBev said it would move “production from these three facilities to our other US facilities”, adding the “changes will enable us to invest even more in our remaining operations and in our portfolio of growing, industry-leading brands.”
AB InBev opened the Jacksonville Brewery in 1969 and its Metal Container Corporation facility there in 2016.
When the brewer filed its third-quarter financial results in October, it described Michelob Ultra as “now the number-one brand in the industry”. AB InBev pointed to data for the US market that it said showed the brand was “the number-one volume-share gainer and now the leading brand by volume in the industry year-to-date”..
In the first nine months of 2025, AB InBev’s revenue in the US declined 1.2%. Sales to retailers fell 3.1% while sales to wholesalers slid 3%. EBITDA inched up 1.1%.
In 2024, the Bud Light brewer reported a 2% fall in US revenues, with sales to retailers decreasing 5% and sales to wholesalers falling 3.9%.
Earlier this week, AB InBev announced a move to reacquire a minority stake in multiple US-based metal container plants.
The Budweiser brand owner said it plans to buy back a 49.9% stake in the plants for around $3bn from a group of institutional investors led by private-equity firm Apollo Global Management.
AB InBev sold the stake to the Apollo-led consortium in 2021 for the same amount. It still held operational control of the packaging facilities as part of the agreement.
