MNST vs BUD Comparison

Monster Beverage is a leader in the energy drink category within the nonalcoholic ready-to-drink beverage market, generating two thirds of revenue in the US and Canada. The well-known Monster trademark includes brands such as Monster Energy, Monster Ultra, Java Monster, and Juice Monster. The firm also owns other energy drink brands, such as Reign, NOS, Burn, Bang and Mother, and brews and distributes beers and flavored malt beverages following the acquisition of a craft brewer in 2022. Monster controls branding and innovation but outsources beverage manufacturing and packaging to copackers and finished goods distribution to bottlers in the global Coca-Cola system (pursuant to a 20-year agreement inked in 2015). Coke is the largest shareholder of Monster with a 19.5% stake.

Anheuser-Busch InBev is the largest brewer in the world and one of the world's top five consumer product companies, as measured by EBITDA. The company's portfolio contains six of the top 10 beer brands by volume, according to Euromonitor, and we estimate it distributes 23 brands with retail sales over $1 billion. AB InBev was created by the 2008 merger of Belgium-based InBev and US-based Anheuser-Busch. The firm holds a 62% economic interest in Ambev, an 87% stake in Budweiser APAC, and in 2016 it acquired SABMiller.