Tariff-free Scotch whisky sailed to United States on 25 July, after US President Donald Trump confirmed tariffs would be removed from whisky during His Majesty The King’s state visit in April. The shipment, worth GBP 60,000, also used exclusively digital trade processes rather than paper-based documentation, which cuts down shipping costs and loading times. The whisky industry supports 41,000 jobs in Scotland and a further 25,000 jobs across the UK, according to the Scotch Whisky Association. Whisky exports were worth GBP 5.4 billion in 2025, while exports to the US alone were worth GBP 1 billion (USD 1.35 billion).
After a ransomware attack forced it to halt operations at four US plants, Coca-Cola resumed Fairlife dairy production on 27 July. On 16 July, an unauthorized third party had gained access to some of Fairlife’s tech systems in what the company characterized as a “ransomware attack”. It did not say if it paid any ransom. Coca-Cola purchased Fairlife, one of its 200 beverage brands, from Select Milk Producers in 2020 for roughly USD 7 billion. Fairlife’s annual sales top USD 3 billion, according to Coca-Cola.
Drinks maker Brown-Forman officially rejected a bid from rival Sazerac to acquire the Jack Daniel’s owner, saying the latest proposal was not “actionable”. The offer from Sazerac, which Brown-Forman said on 26 July was “unsolicited”, followed rumours that the Kentucky-based whiskey maker denied an initial USD 15 billion bid in May. At the time, the family-controlled Brown-Forman was also in merger talks with the French alcohol firm Pernod Ricard, but those discussions fell through. Marshall Farrer, Brown-Forman’s chairman, said that the board and leadership team continue to be confident in the company’s long-term growth.
In 2025, global beer production declined slightly, with total output contracting 0.7 percent over 2024 to 1.896 billion hl, the world’s leading hop specialist BarthHass said on 21 July. Despite varying or, in some cases, contrary trends in individual countries, beer production was down on virtually every continent. The only exception was Africa, which saw a slight increase in beer output. For the current year, BarthHaas expects global beer production to stabilize, but rules out a noticeable market recovery, as growth in Africa, Asia, as well as in Central and South America, is likely to be offset by contraction in Europe and North America.
Heineken and Duvel Moortgat are said to be among the parties that have expressed an interest in buying Haacht Brewery, the Belgian newspaper De Tijd reported on 16 July. They are allegedly among a handful of companies left in the final race for the listed company. Brewery Haacht produces beers and owns 284 hospitality properties in Belgium, the Netherlands and France. The firm has been struggling with financial losses and declining volume sales for several years. Last year, Nils van Dam was appointed CEO with the task of drawing up a strategic plan, which explores all options: stay independent, make acquisitions, merge with another company or exit through a sale. Heineken is the second-largest brewer in Belgium through its subsidiary Alken-Maes. Duvel Moortgat is ranked third. In 2025, Haacht produced an estimated 800,000 hl of beer and beverages.
Kiwi craft brewers are in shock as the French multinational Malteurop will close its New Zealand malt plant in Marton at the end of September. The beer market has been declining and the plant seems to have reached the end of its life. It is estimated that Malteurop supplies around 70 percent of the total malt market. Its local rival Gladfield is confident that it can pick up some of Malteurop’s business as it has expanded capacity at its Dunsandel plant. Observers assume that NZ brewers will switch to Gladfield and then to Australia, where Malteurop has a plant in Geelong near Melbourne with the capacity to also serve the New Zealand market.
What is James Watt getting up to now? The BrewDog co-founder said on 15 July that he has made an offer to US firm Tilray to buy back the craft beer business months after its collapse under a debt pile of more than GBP 500 million (USD 670 million), leading to hundreds of job losses. At its peak, BrewDog had four breweries, about 100 bars worldwide and was said to be worth about USD 2 billion. Within hours, the new owner of BrewDog sent out a statement, insisting that the company is “not for sale”. Irwin Simon, CEO of Tilray, told media he intends to retain the pub chain and brewery. He said the company remained focused on investing in the brand rather than ownership speculation. “BrewDog is not for sale,” Mr Simon emphasised. “If anything, we’re here to really take this to a whole other level around the world.”
Carlsberg’s new Sapporo joint venture across Southeast Asia and Hong Kong, announced in early July, shall help pay down debt. Carlsberg will hold a 75 percent stake in the joint venture and retain full operational control in the markets. It will receive a cash consideration of USD 643 million from Sapporo, which will hold a 25 percent stake. This values the joint venture at USD 2.6 billion, which equals a 2025 EBIT multiple of 21.3x. Carlsberg’s net interest-bearing debt stood at DKK 61.6 billion (USD 9.4 billion) at the end of 2025 – up DKK 34.3 billion in a single year, mainly from the acquisition of UK soft drinks firm Britvic. The company’s own annual report lists “possible asset disposals, if relevant” as one of four levers for getting its debt-to-EBITDA ratio back down below 2.5x by 2027, from 3.28x at the end of 2025. The new JV is one of those levers.
It’s a scandal. Germany’s Federal Statistical Office published alcohol consumption figures for 2024, which were based on inflated data. How could this be? Was it a glitch in the system, plain sloppiness or – we dread to imagine – politically motivated? Honestly, it does make you wonder how it could happen that really no one – neither the various customs men in Germany’s federal states who collect the excise and the data, nor the numbers crunchers at the Statistical Office who do the adding up – found it strange that the 2024 figure (194 million litres) had spiked over 2023. Did they never stop to think how this rise was feasible given that Germany’s alcohol consumption has declined for years? When Dr Winfried Maatz, a German physician and author of the recent book Alkoholkonsum nüchtern betracht (“Alcohol Consumption: A Sober Look”) sent a query to the Statistical Office last year, he was fobbed off.
When the figure for 2025 was released in May this year, which noted a decline to 149 million litres, he submitted another inquiry. This time he insisted on a plausible explanation for these incredible fluctuations. At the end of June, the Statistical Office replied: “Based on the feedback received from the main customs offices affected by the discrepancies, it has been determined that the 2024 alcohol tax statistics definitely show inflated figures.” This issue is particularly shocking because the erroneous figures were used to calculate a per capita alcohol consumption of 11.0 litres in 2024. However, actual alcohol consumption was only 9.5 litres – a difference of a staggering 1.5 litres.
German beverage industry opposes January 2027 introduction of sugar tax. The federal government plans to bring forward the introduction of a sugar tax on beverages by one year, to 1 January 2027. The German beverage industry is up in arms, calling it a “blow to hundreds of small and medium-sized businesses” who would have to stomach the tax themselves, unable to pass it on to retailers. The industry has every reason to feel peeved with the government’s rush job. While the federal government and parliament are in summer recess, it is still unclear which beverages will actually be slapped with the tax. The government has not released either a draft bill or a policy outline. How are companies supposed to make far-reaching business decisions without even knowing the legal framework? Still, the finance ministry expects to generate EUR 450 million (USD 515 million) in revenue per year from the sugar tax. This shall ease the financial strain on cash-strapped health insurance funds.
Dutch brewery Grolsch, which has been part of the Asahi Group since 2016, is taking over the family-owned Gulpener brewery in Limburg in its entirety, media reported on 2 July. Grolsch already held a 15 percent stake and is now acquiring the remaining shares from the Rutten family, bringing an end to the company’s independence after about 200 years. Both parties emphasize that the Gulpen brewery with its 60 employees will continue to operate. The transaction is primarily about pursuing synergies in sales and purchasing. Financial details were not disclosed. Gulpener has operated as one of the few remaining medium-sized breweries with a clear regional focus in the Limburg region. Its national market share is reportedly 1 percent. The Dutch beer market has been in decline for years. It stood at only 11 million hl beer 2024, down from more than 12 million hl in 2018 (Brewers of Europe data).
CAMRA’s report on state of British beer (June 2026) delivers a damning verdict. Campaigning for pubs, pints and people since 1971, CAMRA is a consumer group representing beer drinkers and pubgoers. As consumers, they are angry. Evidence in the report shows what they have known to be true for a long time: that the decline in UK beer consumption is partly the effect of anti-competitive practices by the Big Brewers and the pubcos, which have been flooding the market with uniform beers. Not only have they prevented independent brewers from market entry and effectively limited consumer choice, they have also taken to fleecing consumers. Four global brewers (AB-InBev, Heineken, Carlsberg, Molson Coors) nowadays dominate the UK beer market. Their combined market share is around 80 percent. They bank on uniform, dull beers and remove consumer choice, while running multi-million-pound marketing campaigns that trick consumers into thinking they are buying an independently produced beer and not just a brand, CAMRA says.
All this has been going on for decades – to the effect that per capita beer consumption in the UK has halved since 1990. Because total alcohol intake has remained more or less flat over the same period of time, many consumers must have migrated to a more reliable flavoursome drink, like wine. Worse still, between 1980 and 2025, beer sales have shifted from the on-premise to the off-premise at a steady rate of 1 percent per year. From serving 90 percent of the beer market for decades, the on-premise now accounts for just over 40 percent. Between 2000 and 2024, CAMRA says, on-premise beer prices increased by 118 percent, slightly above the Retail Price Index, while off-premise beer prices rose by only 27 percent, the increases often being applied to the same brand. CAMRA detects serious anti-competitive practices here.
As Diageo is pressing ahead with a major restructuring across several of its markets, it is understood that around 150 Irish-based roles are at risk. The company employs more than 1,200 people in Ireland across brewing (Guinness), production of liqueurs (Baileys), marketing, sales and commercial. It notified Ireland’s Department of Enterprise of “proposed collective redundancies” on 22 June, a spokesperson for the government department confirmed. In the summer of 2025, Diageo’s Dublin-based distillery Roe & Co paused production to “optimise resources and support the sustainable future growth of our business”. In September, Diageo revealed plans to outsource some of its roles in Northern Ireland to India, which would result in around 60 job losses.
In the antitrust proceedings against Austria’s Brau Union, the presiding judge called on the brewing group to engage in settlement talks. “I, too, would like to bring this to a close at some point,” said Judge Eva-Maria Vetter on 30 June. To date, there have been a total of twelve days of court proceedings since February 2025. At the heart of the matter are allegations by the Federal Competition Authority (BWB) that the brewing group exerted improper influence over independent beverage wholesalers. Brau Union rejects the allegations. The case is particularly sensitive because the Austrian Cartel Court can impose fines of up to a maximum of 10 percent of the consolidated revenue of Brau Union’s Dutch parent company, Heineken, which most recently stood at EUR 34 billion. Thirteen more witnesses are scheduled to be heard before the end of the year. The next hearing is set for 21 September. Only then will it become clearer whether the antitrust proceedings will conclude with a ruling next year, or whether an agreement can still be reached by the parties involved.