AB InBev Brews Up Elderflower Ale and Canned Cocktails for Growth

From an art deco storefront in New York’s Chelsea neighborhood, a company called ZX Ventures has assembled stakes in scores of nascent consumer brands: There’s a partnership to research protein snacks for yoga fans, a controlling interest in a marketer of canned rosé founded by a social media impresario who calls himself the Fat Jewish, and alcohol-focused e-tailers in more than a half-dozen countries. But this isn’t your typical startup incubator. It’s an arm of Anheuser-Busch InBev NV, producer of mass-market stalwarts such as Budweiser, Beck’s, and Bass. ZX’s “culture is about dreaming big,” says Pedro Earp, AB InBev’s chief marketing officer and head of ZX. “There are so many opportunities out there, man.”

The idea is to identify potential growth engines and bet on them fast, either in-house or via acquisitions, so the world’s largest brewer isn’t caught out by insurgents. That’s one reason Labatt, AB InBev’s subsidiary in Canada, is researching cannabis beverages in a partnership with Tilray. Staying current with changing trends is a challenge facing companies making products from detergent to ketchup as fickle shoppers abandon old-line brands for small-batch upstarts. This was highlighted on July 12, when AB InBev pulled an offering of shares in its Asia unit because of tepid investor interest. Recognizing that drinkers were turning their backs on big-name beers, AB InBev board members in 2015 met to discuss ways to boost innovation—an acknowledgment that the group was struggling to pull funding away from juggernauts such as Corona, Michelob, and Stella Artois. “We’d been focusing a lot on innovation, and we took trips to Silicon Valley like all the other companies,” says Earp, a jovial Brazilian with a penchant for flannel shirts. “But what we gained was more incremental than exponential growth.” At the meeting, he says, the board approved a unit that would be totally independent, “to focus 100% on what can be important for our future.”