Fortune Staff

Just as it dominates our economy, Big Tech now dominates Fortune’s annual ranking of corporate reputation.

World's Most Admired Companies

Aggregate sales hit $37.8 trillion last year—an increase of 19%, the highest annual growth rate in the list’s history.

Global 500

Change the World

Impact Segment

Sector

Prior Year Rank

Key Financials (Last Fiscal Year)

Revenues ($M)

Profits ($M)

Assets ($M)

Total Stockholder Equity ($M)

Profit Ratios

Profit as % of Revenues

Profits as % of Assets

Profits as % of Stockholder Equity

Industry

Current All-Star Rank

Previous All-Star Rank

Industry Rank

Previous Industry Rank

Overall Score

Innovation

People Management

Use of Corporate Assets

Social Responsibility

Quality of Management

Financial Soundness

Long-Term Investment Value

Quality of Products/Services

Global Competitiveness

<div class="">
<div class="">Anheuser-Busch InBev, or AB InBev, is a multinational drinks conglomerate headquartered in Belgium. It’s the world’s largest beer brewer by both volume and revenue, operating more than 600 beer brands in 150 countries. AB InBev was formed in 2008 through the acquisition of Budweiser brewer Anheuser-Busch by Belgian conglomerate InBev—which is itself a merger of Stella Artois-maker Interbrew and Brazil’s AmBev. In 2015, AB InBev acquired its biggest rival in North America, SABMiller, for $107 billion. The deal required the sale of a number of SABMiller brands, including Miller and Coors, to satisfy antitrust regulators. In recent years, acknowledging the consumer trend away from mass-produced lagers, AB InBev has rapidly acquired U.S. and international craft brewers including Goose Island, Blue Point, and Camden Town Brewery.</div>
</div>

legacy

AB InBev

ab inbev

Michel Doukeris says beer is "very resilient" and "affordable."

No Recession Worries for AB InBev CEO

Leadership

Michelle thank you so much for joining us to talk about Anheuser Busch inbev you are now running the largest beer company in the world. It's been about a year now since you became Ceo of the company. And very early on in your new job, you announced a new global purpose. We dream big to create a future with more cheers. I got to say this doesn't sound like the typical corporate statement of purpose. What's your message? What do you want to get across to people? It doesn't sound very corporate but sounds a B. I because we are known by dreaming big and it's incredible to think that the future more cheers is really correlated to our culture to our industry and brings a lot of what we do every day, each and every employee uh and cuts across all segments that we tackle is not only about beer because the future of more cheers is more inclusive, is more equitable, is where nature that we work with uh is in good, healthy and is in good pace and we really like the idea of bringing this as the North star to the entire company. And my first thing as Ceo, Well in your 1st 100 days as Ceo, you visited many of your operations all around the world. You talked to hundreds of your employees. What did you learn from those conversations, couple of common themes they came across. One is people really like our culture, the company that we are and the products that we represent. People love beer. People love the dynamic environment in which we have as a company. Uh there was this view that our purpose, we had the purpose before that helped us for a long time but was updated so people really want to have something that was more inspiring and easy to share with everybody. There was uh a need to refrain a little bit of the objectives and the way forward in the company called this like reimagining what a beer company can be and we put in place new purpose, new strategy, a very clear idea of moving from buying companies and inorganic strategy to a more organic strategy growing brands, growing businesses and so far we are in the execution mode now happy in the execution mode. Well as you say, you're much more into growing brands building the company as opposed to buying other companies and the success of a your company is to come up with products that are very popular with the public. What is the newest product that you're coming out with that you think is gonna be the next big hit in the United States. One product that we have and people love is very new is in a way Michelob Ultra as a franchise is well known by people but you have for example, Michelob Ultra pure Gold, which is an organic version of Nicola Balter and it's growing very fast. People love it. This is a really difficult time to be growing your business, your new ceo you've got lots of ideas, the US economy, the global economy is all very weak right now dealing with inflation and a lot of other financial issues. What does it take to succeed in these difficult times? People talk a lot about these things that's in a tenure of a ceo you should see right, Which is an economic crisis, cycle of growth, a recession, a social disruption in the first year. We check all the boxes so you need to have your long term plans. You need to have clarity on what you want to achieve but a lot of flexibility to adapt to the circumstances. And I think that people are realizing some are not, but today the cycles are much faster. You need to adapt much faster. You no longer have time to learn everything you need to learn as much as you can and then act if the experts are right, we're going to see a recession worldwide in 2023. Well, how are you preparing? How are you saying to be flexible in the face of a real recession? So number one, controlling what you can control. Number two, I think that we are fortunate to be in a category that's very resilient and the reason why beer is so resilient is in a way is affordable as a category. So when people don't travel, they still needing friends and drinking beer and we have products that go from premium products to more affordable products so we can appeal to everyone. Well speaking of prices, you have raised prices on many of your beer and other beverage brands and It seems to be consumers are still buying it. Do you think that that you can sustain that demand going into the new year into 2023 prices of beer are leg inflation so far because of what I said, consumption remains solid. Beer is growing globally is gaining what it called sheriff throat uh and has to do with what we said beer is very resilient. Beer is present in several different occasions globally. Has been premium izing as an affordable luxury. So it's very easy for you to trade up in beer from the mainstream to the previous segment because a matter of cents not thousands of dollars or hundreds of dollars and we keep looking at our revenue strategy in a way that we can keep the category healthy and we can keep interacting for consumers because we want them to be with us for the longer run. You sound pretty optimistic at a time when so many business leaders are worried about all of the uncertainties. Is there any concerns that you have? What's on the top of your worry list. So the fact that I look not concerned and look optimistic, it doesn't mean that I'm not concerned. We think that I can see managing control but I think at the same time the background that I have where I grew up, the places that I live in, they give me some visibility on all these impacts from inflation, supply chain disruptions, social instability, economic differences in geopolitical tensions. And I think that uh I kind of try to understand all of that, but keep my focus on our strategy on our execution in motivate and engage our partners and our team in optimistic way because I think that time and at the end of the day, I'm very optimistic about where we are going to. And of course on the way there is always some turbulence. Well, Michelle, let's talk a little bit about you. You grew up in brazil, your mother, Brazilian, your father greek and you've lived all around the world in europe china latin America the US just about everywhere. How has that influenced your thinking as a ceo I had the privilege of living in many different places. Grew up on a family that was multicultural in itself and because you live in different places, you learn different cultures, different business methods. Uh you can read fastest sometimes what happens around you and you continue to have contacts across the globe which in a company that's truly globally like us, we have a very dire reverse footprint. This ends up being a big help for you when you need to read things fast and build your plans and be able to adapt for different circumstances. You spend most of your career at a b. M 26 years and you've worked in almost every possible country that the company does business, at what point did you look at yourself and I'd like to be the ceo short answer. I think it was never I always focused on doing my job, learning from people and creating value to the company and to the stakeholders that we have and happened that I had the opportunity to go everywhere and I ended up on this great opportunity to be leading the company, which I consider to be a privilege. You interact with so many american ceo. I'm just wondering how is the way you lead different than your american counterparts? It's difficult to say because leadership is something that is very different place to place people to people. If I would say that there is like one difference maybe on my approach is that I tend to look at things from a more global standpoint and more empathetic to the differences that exist. And this is being helpful to me because when you get to know people the way that they think usually you can bond faster, you can act faster and you can find mutual understanding much faster

Michel Doukeris, Chief Executive Officer, AB InBev
Jim Fitterling, Chairman and CEO, Dow 
Stephanie Linnartz, President, Marriott International 
In conversation with: Matt Heimer, Executive Editor, Features, FORTUNE; Fortune Co-Chair, CEO Initiative

CEO Initiative 2022 - Climate: A Watershed Moment

Conferences

Michel Doukeris, Chief Executive Officer, AB InBev
Jim Fitterling, Chairman and CEO, Dow 
Stephanie Linnartz, President, Marriott International

Michel Doukeris, Chief Executive Officer, AB InBev
Jim Fitterling, Chairman and CEO, Dow 
Stephanie Linnartz, President, Marriott International 
Matt Heimer, Executive Editor, FORTUNE

Ezgi Barcenas, Global Head of Sustainability, Anheuser-Busch InBev
Rebecca Dunphey, President, Personal Care, Kimberly-Clark North America
Alyssa Raine, Group Vice President, Customer Marketing Platforms, Walgreens

Moderator: Maria Aspan, Senior Writer, FORTUNE

MPW Next Gen 2020: Retail and Supply Chain in a Pandemic

Uncategorized

While the pandemic has uncovered vulnerabilities in the supply chain, it has also highlighted some strengths. How can retail, manufacturing, and the food industry forge ahead and build on previous innovation?

Carlos Brito says the company has an "obligation to the community."

Ab InBev CEO on hand sanitizer production and donation during COVID-19 crisis

Carlos Brito: we have an "obligation to the community."

Ab InBev CEO on hand sanitizer production and donation

so good to see you again, burrito. And thank you so much for joining us to talk about the great things that you and your company have been doing during the Corona virus crisis. Uh, you know, when people think of Anheuser Busch InBev, you know, they think. But whether Beers and Niccolo, I guess crowd, you can add hand sanitizers tell us a little bit about how you and your company were able to mobilized so quickly to convert your factories to produce and bottle and donate thousands of bottles of hand sanitizers all around the world. How did you pull it off? Susie's first Thanks for having me. It's great to be here. You're right that we're living in precedent times. I mean, everybody's having to be very creative if there's one thing that's very special, but our business is that we are a local business. We manufacture cell 95% of what we produced locally, so we we buy raw materials locally. We hired our colleges locally produced locally, sell back to the community. So they connected with the community. And that's why we decided to look at the communities and see what waas what were their needs. And we saw that hand sanitizers, water, trucks, hospital beds you know, the Red Cross deal that way, helping them with blood drives, supporting our clubs and restaurants. So I mean, all those things are part of being a local business part of the communities and trying to be seen as always, as without a history of this, as part of the solution to issue that community facing That's our responsibility. Yeah, and actually, you have come to the rescue in so many other crises. Even recently when Tennessee was going through the tornadoes, you jumped in, and we're providing cans off water for everybody who who needed it. What is it about the culture of a B. InBev that you're always quick to mobilize and come up with some kind of humanitarian response? Well, because again, we understand that we're part of the community and I understand, because of the logistic of production sites, the inventory we can put right next to disaster relief areas that we have an obligation and we've done that forever, that always trying to put a solution. I was trying to be part of our college that live in the community, right? are consumers that live in the communities, our customers, but also part of the community. So again, it all comes back to the fact that dear is a very community connected business again. More than 95% of always sell is produced and sold back to the community and our colleagues leaving that community as well because she was in our customers. So that's where I think it all came from. It is, I get that we have the people is always the most important thing. Our people, our community, consumers, customers. So you have operations all around the world, and I'm sure in one way or another everybody was impacted by coded 19. But in China now, where you do a big business, all the breweries are open for business. You're 100% operational. Tell us a little bit about the transition, how how's it going? And give us some insights about what we can expect here in the U. S. When Americans come out of lock down, What might it be like? You know, says you at your last of your important question, because that's one of the benefits of being a global company. China was ahead of the curve and chips off stages of this pandemic. And now we're seeing China recovering. So the customers are opening up. Restaurants are opening up. Consumers are going back to their normal lives little by little. So and because China wasn't this kind of crisis in February, already with the lot sounds, we instituted protocols in our facilities in the communities. We learned how to be help for the communities, and that tool kit of learnings that was generated in our business in China and South Korea's well were transplanted to the whole world. So now when the disease started to go into Europe in the North American L South America, you know Africa, we have business and all continents. We've been able to use the learning from our Asian college, be a Chinese calling South Korean college and apply those learnings to different stages. The different countries are going through. So, for example, not only in China instituted protocols to be able to operate our business and keep our people in terms of health and safety totally protected, do even more than what the doublet show. And here, the CDC in the West AARP recognizing, uh so our standards air ahead of that. But I also understand how consumers change behaviors during and after the crisis. So, for example, consumers, of course, Whatmore contactless delivery. They went Maur e commerce. They're going from pubs and restaurants to supermarkets and grocery stores in He had to adapt our supply chain, Suzie very quickly in terms of backs, redeploy our people from channel to channel. So are consumers could find our products on shelves so they could have a little bit of normalcy in their life? Our lives would be in effect in so many ways. I think it's only fair to consumers to go to the supermarket and find their favorite brands in stuck. That gives them a little bit of comfort when they go back home. I understand burrito that you do not lay off the single employee during this Corbett 19 crisis, so it's great that all 170,000 of your employees still have job. But there are millions of other people who have been laid off at other companies. So where did they go once Kobe 19 crisis is over. Well, I think first they're gonna be redeployed or re employed by the their own companies if the companies are still around and I think a lot of them will be because the government's trying to help companies go through this crisis and they'll be these locations. For example, consumers are buying more line. There'll be more, maybe more jobs online, you know. But I'm sure the restaurants and bars and all that will come back. The performance will be different with the concentration of people at first will not be in the same. People will be comfortable by being too close to each other. But as people come up with that scenes in other ways of treating the disease, the world will continue. You know, I would tend to be very optimistic. The world has seen many crisis in the past, and yes, there were some some healing that goes until people get confidence again but attended the day. People still like to do the things they always like to do, which is to meet each other, go to restaurant travel and all that. There still will be a lot of people who will be displaced for some reason or another. There Cos. Just couldn't take it back because there have been so much lot of revenue. So with bills, people not having paychecks, they're not gonna be the one who are making purchases like cars and houses were going on going on vacation. What will this mean for the global economy in 2020? What's your prediction? How do you see things playing out for the rest of this year? Well, Susie were Brewer's, not economists, but the only you know, it's hard to predict, but the only hint can have is what I see in China and South Korea. What I saw there is that there was strictly enforced for Ahmad. Let's put it this way, rounding for a month and then little by little different provinces that were in different stages green, yellow and red started going back to business in. A lot of our customers that were there before are here now in the reopening. So that's still only model I have in my mind. And that's what we use it for. The rest of role that this lot down will take two weeks, three weeks for weeks, and then things will start going back to normal. If that's the scenario, we think it could be a V shaped recovery because governments are getting sentenced for businesses to keep people employed for that period of time a month, two months. So then the economy should be able to recover faster. But we'll have to see. But that's the only hint we have by observing what's happening in Asia.

AB InBev

Company Information

Change the World

Key Financials (Last Fiscal Year)

Profit Ratios

World's Most Admired Companies