As thousands of Anheuser-Busch employees pack up their desks due to a company-wide layoff, one former executive of the company warned that more job losses may be coming.
"My vantage point is that they're going to have to find somebody new," former president of operations Anson Frericks said on "Cavuto: Coast to Coast" Thursday.
"Otherwise, you've seen hundreds of people laid off Anheuser-Busch, hundreds of people laid off at some of their suppliers, their glass suppliers, and unfortunately," he cautioned, "thousands of more people laid off if you don't find somebody who can come in and you can get this brand stabilized."
Anheuser-Busch InBev on Thursday reported a steep drop in profits amid the ongoing boycott against Bud Light, but the company insists U.S. consumers still have a generally favorable view of the beer brand.
The company announced that its U.S. revenue dropped 10.5% in the second quarter, while its earnings before taxes, interest and depreciation fell 28.2%.
The second quarter covered April through the end of June and offers the first look at the damage caused by the Bud Light boycott, which began in April after the brewer partnered with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
"Right now they said they've only laid off about 2% of their staff. Yet you've seen that their sales are down over 15%, their volumes down 15%, that's all brands that they have," Frericks pointed out. "So there's obviously a mismatch there. At some point, there's going to be more people that go if they don't find somebody new to turn this around."
Frericks doubled down on his assertion made on "Varney & Co." last week – that current Anheuser-Busch CEO Brendan Whitworth should’ve been laid off in place of the 30,000 rank-and-file employees.
"It's the CEO that is accountable to the shareholders of the business," the former exec said. "This should have been a breakout year and a breakout quarter for this company… Yet in this quarter, you saw the U.S. business down 30% in terms of its earnings year-over-year. Earnings plunged in the U.S. that took the global company to only up 5% year-over-year."
"So obviously we need to find somebody in the U.S. that can turn this business around, get these loyal Bud Light customers back," he added.
Pouring out some optimism, the former president of operations expressed that there is a solution Bud Light can take.
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"Those Bud Light consumers, they don't want a debate with their beer. They just want Bud Light focused on things that all consumers enjoy: sports, music, others," Frericks said.
"But I really think it starts with something very simple. It's an apology to the consumers that they called fratty and out of touch," he noted. "I think that would go a long way. And then after that, it's getting back to those great ad campaigns we all enjoyed long ago."
FOX Business’ Anders Hagstrom and Joe Toppe contributed to this report.
