AB InBev Named One of Fast Company’s 50 Most Innovative Companies for 2022

AB InBev Named One of Fast Company’s 50 Most Innovative Companies for 2022.

For the first time in our company’s history, AB InBev has been named to Fast Company’s highly sought-after list of the World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies in 2022, making our debut ranking at Number 12.

This achievement reflects our commitment to harnessing the power of innovation across our global portfolio of brands to solve challenges around agriculture, food, small business, circularity, and more. As part of this recognition, AB InBev was also ranked No. 1 on the North America category list.

"This recognition is an amazing reflection of our continued transformation as a company that leverages the power of our brands and partnerships to solve some of the world’s biggest challenges through creativity and innovation,” shared our Chief Marketing and ZX Venture Officer, Pedro Earp.

Achieving these results starts with a culture that can move quickly, seed and learn. We accomplish these goals through a simple formula: identify a relevant opportunity, seed and refine the idea with speed through local markets, and scale the most successful ideas leveraging our collaborative and agile teams around the world.

This year, Fast Company recognized four innovations across our portfolio, which all employed our agile innovation approach:

EverGrain: Transforming leftover barley into nutritious products

Founded by an AB InBev colleague, EverGrain was launched in January 2021 as a sustainable ingredient company that captures the protein and fiber in barley that isn’t required for the beer-making process and then transforms that barley into novel, nutritious products. These byproducts can be used to produce more sustainable and nutrient-rich plant-based foods and beverages without asking consumers to sacrifice on taste – from plant-based barley milk, to pasta, breads and pizzas, to meat alternatives. The global beer industry creates over 9 million metric tons of leftover barley, and through EverGrain, we have the potential to re-use this material to help solve global food challenges. Click here for more.

Local Crop: Driving impact for small farmers and consumers

Through our local crop initiative, we’re re-imagining crop sourcing approaches to create localized supply chains built around indigenous crops such as cassava, mango, corn, and more. Based off successful projects in Africa, we scaled this approach first to Brazil and then to Colombia and Ecuador to contract local farmers’ entire annual yield to make affordable, high-quality beers. This model creates more local economic opportunity for workers – having helped thousands of workers across South America to date and generating investment in local economies, and affordable options for consumers. Click here for more.

Barley Pack: Circular packaging solution

This innovation uses leftover barley straw from our beer manufacturing process to make a six-pack bottle holder produced without any virgin trees, up to 90 percent less water, less energy, and fewer harsh chemicals. The packaging was launched by our Corona brand in Mexico and has now been introduced in additional markets. It is a core innovation moving us toward our goal of having all packaging across the AB InBev portfolio be either returnable or made from majority-recycled content by 2025. Click here for more.

Tienda Cerca: Enabling small business digital transformation

Tienda Cerca is a digital e-commerce platform that allows small businesses to become digital sellers virtually overnight, helping them thrive. Innovated in Colombia during the pandemic and scaled across numerous Latin American markets in 2021, this platform includes an app and website that shows users all the neighborhood shops in their area. They select a store they want to purchase from and are redirected to WhatsApp, where they can place an order for products directly with the shop owner. To date, the platform includes more than 450,000 retailers, impacting the lives of more than one million people. Click here for more.

To see the full list of winners, go here: