Anheuser-Busch purchases Instagram star’s wine brand
Anheuser-Busch North America CEO Michel Doukeris on growth in China, the impact of aluminum tariffs and the outlook for the company in the U.S. market.
Anheuser-Busch InBev announced it has bought Babe Wine, a company co-founded by Instagram influencer Josh “The Fat Jewish” Ostrovsky.
The world’s largest brewer made the announcement Friday saying the company was “thrilled to welcome @DrinkBabe – through our partners at ZX Ventures.”
“We’re excited to continue working together to bring the fun, delicious – photogenic wines to even more U.S. consumers,” the company tweeted.
Ostrovsky co-founded the wine brand with David Oliver Cohen and Tanner Cohen. Ostrovsky said they came up with the opportunity following a shortage of rosé in the Hamptons.
“We knew they were the No. 1 group drinking wine, but they couldn’t cite a brand,” Ostrovsky said in an interview. “We wanted to be the Bud Light of wine.”
Instagram influencer Josh “The Fat Jewish” Ostrovsky with Babe the mascot. (Getty Images)
Babe Wine, which is sold in cans, focused on appealing to millennials.
“It’s a really staid category,” Brendan Whitworth, Anheuser-Busch’s chief sales officer, told Bloomberg. “We think this is the right time to capitalize on what’s going on in canned wine space and wine in general.”
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Terms of the deal were not immediately disclosed.
An analysis by IWSR found that worldwide alcohol consumption has declined 1.6 percent in 2018, compared to 2017. The analysis found whiskey and agave-based spirits grew but sales of wine and beer were down. However, rosé consumption increased 8.2 percent over the year, according to the analysis.