Budweiser to invest more in e-commerce as coronavirus hits offline demand

Budweiser APAC, the Asia-Pacific arm of beer giant AB InBev plans to invest more in e-commerce as the coronavirus changes consumer habits and hits demand from restaurants and nightspots, its chief executive said.

The firm swung on Thursday to a loss of $6 million for the first quarter from a profit of $259 million in the same period last year, after pandemic curbs shut eateries and bars in China and hit consumer traffic in South Korea for months.

Although a sharp drop in new cases brought signs of a recovery starting in April in China and South Korea, the company said the situation was driving it to relocate resources to its e-commerce businesses.