Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Jason
Speaker 1: Kelly on Bloomberg Radio. All right, you are listening to
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Business Week. Carol Masser along with Jason Kelly. We've
Speaker 1: been all in when it comes to covering all things green.
Speaker 1: Of course we had our recent Green Festival and Jason,
Speaker 1: I'm both talking two uh guests about sustainability and protecting
Speaker 1: our climate. Well, A b in Bev is another global
Speaker 1: company where it is a priority to announce some new
Speaker 1: green initiatives with more. Tony Milliken, Cheap Procurement, Sustainability and
Speaker 1: Circular Ventures officer at A b InBev, joining us on
Speaker 1: the phone from Florida. Tony, nice to have you here.
Speaker 1: How are you? How's Florida going? It's outstanding, I'm telling you,
Speaker 1: I'm looking out my windows. I'm talking to you right now,
Speaker 1: and it's absolutely beautiful, eighty nine degrees clear skies or
Speaker 1: anybody Dowmonds. Interesting and I'm humbled to be with both you,
Speaker 1: Caroline Jason look forward to this conversation. Well, thank you,
Speaker 1: it's nice to have you with us. And and so
Speaker 1: how has it been with the virus and and sort
Speaker 1: of dealing with that because you have broad responsibility across
Speaker 1: the company and and I do wonder how this plays
Speaker 1: into some of the strategy but also just the day
Speaker 1: to day. What has this meant to some of the
Speaker 1: decisions you've been making and have to make. You know,
Speaker 1: it's interesting the pandemic is actually helped our colleagues focused
Speaker 1: and and so you know, look at the overall focus
Speaker 1: is the same and really changed, but we've kind of
Speaker 1: taken the longer term kind of shortened it up. Uh
Speaker 1: so urgent actions you know, directed towards the pandemic um
Speaker 1: but our commitments stays the same. We've got ambitious sustainability goals.
Speaker 1: But I must tell you, I mean, if you think
Speaker 1: about agriculture, so if we're in Africa, I mean it
Speaker 1: is incredibly important for our agronomous to be in the
Speaker 1: field with our farmers and being able to talk to
Speaker 1: them and being able to make sure we keep the
Speaker 1: cash flow moving. You know, in South Africa, the government
Speaker 1: shut our business down, but you know we still have
Speaker 1: a commitment to our farmers and so working with them
Speaker 1: closely making sure the cash flow goes through because guess
Speaker 1: what if we shut them off, then cause even more problems.
Speaker 1: So we've been also providing you know, the hand sanitizings,
Speaker 1: the mask and things like that close up to our farmers.
Speaker 1: So I mean we really, if you think about it,
Speaker 1: it's much more of a shorter term knock out the problems,
Speaker 1: make sure we keep to keep our business going. And
Speaker 1: i'd sell you that, UM. The one thing we've learned
Speaker 1: through this whole thing is that is shown that that
Speaker 1: we work together our our partners and others. Not only
Speaker 1: we'll get through these tough times, we're gonna be we're
Speaker 1: gonna emerge more resilient than ever. So this has benna
Speaker 1: you know, don't waste this crisis. You gotta learn from it.
Speaker 1: Well that's such a great point, Tony, because I do think,
Speaker 1: you know, I wish none of us had to go
Speaker 1: through this crisis, but we have. And I do wonder
Speaker 1: about the longer lasting impacts that sometimes you know, crisis
Speaker 1: leads to innovation and better ways and smarter ways, UM,
Speaker 1: in terms of doing things and protecting more of society
Speaker 1: or benefiting more of society. What are the longer lasting
Speaker 1: impacts on your business? UM in that regard When it
Speaker 1: comes to UM the virus, I'd say this, I mean,
Speaker 1: we won't know the longer impact until we get down
Speaker 1: a little further down the road. I do know this
Speaker 1: shorter impact is that, um, you know, we've we've had
Speaker 1: to come a little bit closer to home. I mean,
Speaker 1: our our company. I just want to tell you we're
Speaker 1: a global company, but our business is local, uh, and
Speaker 1: so we don't it's not like we're trying, let me
Speaker 1: put this, it's not like we're a high tech company
Speaker 1: building phones and then we're sitting in one or two
Speaker 1: places and producing and shipping them everywhere. We're actually in
Speaker 1: the communities working, so working up close, you know, with
Speaker 1: our communities. It's just a much more efficient. It's also
Speaker 1: got us closer to the consumer. We actually understand what
Speaker 1: the consumers going through it. So this is more of
Speaker 1: a heightened awareness of our consumer all the way back
Speaker 1: to our supplier. So I say that end to end
Speaker 1: supply chain has become much more how do you say, intimate?
Speaker 1: And I think as we come out of this, UM,
Speaker 1: it'll show us uh and and our our supply chain
Speaker 1: to be more resilient but also reactive to I mean,
Speaker 1: if you can make it through this, man, you can
Speaker 1: make it do anything. So I think the longer term,
Speaker 1: we'll turn that corner hopefully in twenty one and get
Speaker 1: into twenty two, we'll see, you know, more of the
Speaker 1: things that you're probably looking for me to answer. I
Speaker 1: just don't have them the answer at this point. So Tony,
Speaker 1: as you and and the management team and Caroline, I
Speaker 1: have both spent some time with Carlos Brito Brito as
Speaker 1: you guys tell him over the years, UM, tell us
Speaker 1: about what you're hearing from your consumers, from your customers
Speaker 1: about this, because you are ultimately a consumer brand, didn't
Speaker 1: I know you have a very intimate relationship you alluded
Speaker 1: to this with the supply chain, but also with your customers.
Speaker 1: How does it play into the conversations that you have
Speaker 1: all the way down to the end user, the end
Speaker 1: drinker as it were. Well, I mean, I'm getting a
Speaker 1: little out of my fan box, as you know, because
Speaker 1: I'm a supply chain guy. UM. But but but I'm
Speaker 1: also understand our business. It's um, it's interesting to see
Speaker 1: how things are changing. So it depends on where you
Speaker 1: are in the world. If you're in the US, you know,
Speaker 1: are are what we call our ops fremists is kind
Speaker 1: of I mean, our mference has kind of shut down,
Speaker 1: but to now look at how the consumer is in
Speaker 1: the retail market, and so you're seeing much of larger
Speaker 1: packs that are being bought much more can than glass.
Speaker 1: So you're seeing the mixed change um and we're seeing
Speaker 1: that across whether you're you know, you're in the non
Speaker 1: out or you're in the alcohol business cans and large
Speaker 1: packs or what we're seeing. I don't think that's going
Speaker 1: to go away. I mean we're playing on that mixed
Speaker 1: change continually. I think if you you move into other
Speaker 1: areas around the world, is how do you get closer
Speaker 1: to your consumer? And I mean by that last mile,
Speaker 1: how do you deliver directly to them so they don't
Speaker 1: have to leave home and and and go to you know,
Speaker 1: those those tough areas to get to get our products.
Speaker 1: I think there's a lot of things that we're now noticing.
Speaker 1: The consumer insights are there, and our business is obviously
Speaker 1: pivoting very quickly. I think you'll see our numbers whenever
Speaker 1: they do come out. I like what I like how
Speaker 1: our company is responding uh to this pandemic is I
Speaker 1: mean by the way I mean I worked for Carlos
Speaker 1: free time much Directordport. He's a fantastic CEO. The ability,
Speaker 1: his superpower is just being able to deal with crisis
Speaker 1: and uh and and trust me, I've learned a ton
Speaker 1: from him. So, Tony, I alluded to this on the
Speaker 1: way out before we got to some news. But talk
Speaker 1: to us about some of these collap rations, because it
Speaker 1: does feel like one of the ways that you do,
Speaker 1: and we were talking about your customers, your end customers
Speaker 1: at the beginning, that you do kind of push this
Speaker 1: notion down into the broader world, which feels important. How
Speaker 1: do you decide on those and talk to us about
Speaker 1: how some of them have been executed. Water dot org
Speaker 1: is is a fantastic partner. I mean Gary White and
Speaker 1: Matt Damon. Uh, they're the partners that are behind water
Speaker 1: dot org. We worked with them for several years. It's
Speaker 1: our flagship program that helps for micro financing of water
Speaker 1: uh in places like Uganda, and so let me just
Speaker 1: tell you why it's important. Um. If you we're in
Speaker 1: a developed world here in the US and most of
Speaker 1: the places that are listening, but if you're in like you, Yanna, UM,
Speaker 1: it's tough to get water in and think about this.
Speaker 1: The way you get water. You might spend hours getting
Speaker 1: it bringing it back at night. It's tough to do things.
Speaker 1: It's just very complex and our ability to help and
Speaker 1: what we've done so far with water Door is we've
Speaker 1: been packed it over a million people that don't have
Speaker 1: water access. And so that is how where we bring
Speaker 1: Stella in Stella's brand purpose is around water and and
Speaker 1: the and dealing with the complexities of water and helping
Speaker 1: people people. And then you bring water Door Oregon together.
Speaker 1: And so what that partnership has done, as I said,
Speaker 1: is delivered over a million and that's through our consumers,
Speaker 1: are consumers participating in Stella Stella, then UH providing the
Speaker 1: micro financing the water dot org and then impacting you know,
Speaker 1: upwards of a million people that don't have water. I
Speaker 1: think that's that's one yes, no, no, no, please please
Speaker 1: finish no no. I just think that's one of many things.
Speaker 1: I mean, let me give you another one done in Brazil,
Speaker 1: we have a party called Almond a m A and
Speaker 1: our company and this is internal, We're not dealing with
Speaker 1: partners and we decided to start selling our own water
Speaker 1: UH to consumers and all the profits from the sales
Speaker 1: of those water go to um um out how how
Speaker 1: it says people that don't have access to water in Brazil.
Speaker 1: So again we're trying to help people because water is
Speaker 1: a very complex uh resource, Um that we're somewhat spoiled
Speaker 1: and having here. So let me help you a little further. Um.
Speaker 1: The complexity of around water is this, we can't make
Speaker 1: beer without water. We can make beer with almost anything else,
Speaker 1: but you've gotta have water. And I said earlier in
Speaker 1: our conversations, we're a local company and so we're in
Speaker 1: these communities. We want to make sure that people have
Speaker 1: access to water before we even get it right. And
Speaker 1: that think that's being the band partners. We have another
Speaker 1: program down in in um in Columbia. Again think thing.
Speaker 1: We're bowling water, selling the water. All the profits then
Speaker 1: go to conserving water, reservoirs and and helping water aquifers
Speaker 1: become cleaner. So if you want to talk about just water,
Speaker 1: we were there. If you want to go think about this.
Speaker 1: Who would have ever predicted that there would be a
Speaker 1: Super Bowl ad about renewable energy when we did it
Speaker 1: just a year ago with Budweiser. Why because we're gonna
Speaker 1: be a renewable electricity a matter of fact, if you
Speaker 1: think about it, every bud light and Budweiser in the
Speaker 1: US is produced from renewable energy. Every beer in the
Speaker 1: US will be produced under renewable electricity, sometimes towards the
Speaker 1: end of the first quarter of next year. And so
Speaker 1: we got a wind farm, we've got a solar farm,
Speaker 1: and and then I will lets you go onto something else.
Speaker 1: We we made an incredibly aggressive target back on Marches seventeen,
Speaker 1: we said it would be renewable electricity by now. I
Speaker 1: gotta tell you, everybody in the world called me. It
Speaker 1: felt like everybody in the world. I got more emails,
Speaker 1: text and phone calls after that announcement that we made
Speaker 1: is saying are you crazy? Because seven years eight years
Speaker 1: from there, and we're gonna do this without buying UH certificates.
Speaker 1: We were actually looking at putting new assets in the ground,
Speaker 1: adding to the grid. So you know, there's there are
Speaker 1: companies around the world that say they're percent renewable, but
Speaker 1: they're buying certificates. We have a commitment to actually create
Speaker 1: new electricity going on to the grid. And so right
Speaker 1: now we're about the way there and we're just sitting
Speaker 1: in and we've had the pandemic, but we're still making
Speaker 1: progress and I hope by the end of the year
Speaker 1: will be close to se So it just gives you
Speaker 1: an idea of this the power scale, I think, and
Speaker 1: I think whether it's our brand, you know, like Budweisers
Speaker 1: is about renewal electricity and really really like carbon reduction.
Speaker 1: I give you another thing if you think about what's
Speaker 1: going on out in UM in the US. We've got
Speaker 1: electric trucks from b y D that we've got out
Speaker 1: on the West coast and we're delivering UH products on
Speaker 1: electrical trucks, you know, these big class eight trucks. UM.
Speaker 1: We we hope to have all our trucks there in
Speaker 1: the near future. So I mean, if every place around
Speaker 1: the world we're looking at how to reduce they our
Speaker 1: carbon footprint, how do we help water complexity? You know,
Speaker 1: it's not about uh. You know, you will see people
Speaker 1: talk about water neutral. Well water neutral USK means we're
Speaker 1: actually water replacing water in the reservoir we're taking which
Speaker 1: is great, Which is and this is where we want
Speaker 1: to see people, you know, where it's not just neutral
Speaker 1: but actually being positive and having a positive impact. Hey, Tony,
Speaker 1: we could talk to you for hours, but we've got
Speaker 1: to run unfortunately. Tony Milliken, Cheap Procurement, sustainability and circular
Speaker 1: Ventures officer at a B InBev, on the phone from Florida,