The American private equity firm TSG Consumer Partners pulled the plug on BrewDog. The Scottish brewer and bar operator appointed financial clean-up crew AlixPartners to “evaluate the next phase of investment for the business.” Most observers suspect that BrewDog will be broken up and sold. If a deal is struck, TSG is likely to receive all the proceeds. BrewDog’s 220,000 retail investors (“Equity Punks”), who poured more than USD 100 million into the firm’s expansion through several crowdfunding rounds, could be left with zilch.
That is because TSG holds “preference shares”, ensuring it is paid first – before other investors. When TSG bought a 22 percent stake for USD 265 million in 2017, the deal was structured thus that its shares rank ahead of “ordinary” shares held by Equity Punks and staff. The agreement promised TSG an 18 percent compound annual return on their investment upon a “liquidity event” (a sale or IPO). Due to the ludicrously hefty return, TSG can now claim USD 1.1 billion from any sale. Not that BrewDog is likely to fetch that much. Still, any deal would leave nothing for small investors.
Heineken will cut up to 6,000 jobs from its global workforce over the next two years to save up to EUR 500 million annually. The job cuts amount to almost 7 percent of the 87,000-strong, global workforce, the brewer said on 11 February. It also set lower expectations for 2026 profit growth than last year, as the Dutch brewer and its peers face weakening demand. The company is searching for a new CEO following the resignation of Dolf van den Brink in January. In 2025, Heineken’s beer volumes remained under pressure. Organic volumes declined by 1.2 percent to 281 million hl. The largest drop was registered in Europe (-3.4 percent), followed by the Americas (-2.8 percent). There was a slight fall of 0.3 percent in Africa and the Middle East, while APAC saw a 4.4 percent increase in volumes.
Heineken reconfigures its European operations. Though touted as a “pooling of resources” and a sharpening of focus, it is actually about centralising decision-making and reporting lines into fewer regional centres to reduce costs overall and raise profits at a time of declining beer sales. Starting this year, several units will be organised in multi-market operating companies. This will see brewer Alken Maes in Belgium shift a fair share of functions to Heineken in the Netherlands. Heineken also said that the Czech Republic and neighbouring Slovakia will operate in a more aligned fashion, as will Romania and Bulgaria. The biggest change will affect Germany, Austria and Switzerland, which will be united in a single DACH (Deutschland, Österreich, Schweiz) cluster, reporting to a new hub in Linz, Austria, from 1 July 2026. Linz-based Brau Union will play a leading role. Selling some 5 million hl beer annually and enjoying a market share in excess of 50 percent, Heineken’s Austrian subsidiary is the largest unit in the cluster, operating 12 breweries. Heineken Germany, which is basically an import business, will report directly to Linz. The German business allegedly suffered a 15 percent decline in volume sales to below 1.5 million hl in 2025 as successive price hikes had toppled demand for Heineken and the Gösser brands.
AB-InBev upbeat for 2026 as volumes decline slows. The US market was a focal point in AB-InBev’s results presentation (12 February). Harry Schuhmacher, the publisher of Beer Business Daily, was not alone in wondering why analysts were so smitten by the brewer’s turnaround in the US, considering that the US market is not the firm’s biggest. In 2025 AB-InBev sold less beer than in 2024, a drop of 2.6 percent or 12 million hl. In its North America region, the decline was more pronounced: -3.9 percent. Global revenue declined as well: to USD 59.3 billion, from USD 59.7 billion. What must have elated analysts was that normalised EBITDA grew 4.9 percent to USD 21.2 billion in 2025 and normalised EBIT was up 7 percent to USD 15.8 billion. For the time being, AB-InBev’s tactic of growing profits while revenues and volume sales decline seems to hold firm.
Japan’s Kirin to sell Four Roses bourbon brand to Gallo. In a move that markedly expands its presence in the whiskey category, the privately-owned wine and drinks firm Gallo has agreed to acquire Four Roses bourbon from Japan’s Kirin for up to USD 775 million, media reported on 5 February. The Financial Times had reported in October that Kirin was looking to raise as much as USD 1 billion from a sale of Four Roses, which it acquired in 2002. Kirin probably had to accept a lower price for its brand as whiskey sales in the US and abroad are entering into a period of correction after several boom years. According to Impact Databank, Four Roses sold 425,000 cases (9 litres each) in the US in 2024, out of 1 million cases in global sales. The brand was roughly flat in volume terms in Impact’s control states through the first half of 2025. Four Roses ranks eighth by volume among all bourbon brands worldwide.
Nigerian Breweries swung back to profit in 2025, capping a year of financial repair for the country’s largest brewer, after currency shocks and surging financing costs pushed it into losses for two consecutive years, media reported on 13 February. Net income stood at NGN 99.1 billion (USD 73 million) for the year ended 31 December, compared with a NGN 145.0 billion loss in 2024. Revenue rose 35 percent to a record NGN 1.47 trillion, while operating profit climbed almost threefold to NGN 205.2 billion. The brewer, majority-owned by Heineken, was among the consumer goods companies hit hardest by Nigeria’s 2023 currency devaluation, which inflated the naira value of dollar-denominated obligations and drove up input costs. The company reported steep losses in 2023 and 2024 as exchange-rate volatility and higher borrowing costs eroded margins.
Nigeria is one of Africa’s largest economies. Tragically, in the past decade the country has gone backwards. On average, individual Nigerians are poorer today than they were in 2015. But this does not seem to stop them from enjoying a beer. Nigerians are estimated to have spent the equivalent of more than USD 1 billion on beer and other brewery products in the first nine months of 2025, according to a recent analysis of financial results from the country’s leading listed brewers. There are a host of other privately-owned breweries, not least the former Guinness Nigeria firm (now owned by Singapore-based conglomerate Tolaram), which do not publish results. But the market is basically a “two-horse” race between Heineken (via Nigerian Breweries) and AB-InBev (via International Breweries), followed by Guinness Nigeria. In 2024, Nigeria retained its position as Africa’s second-largest beer market with reportedly 17.7 million hl beer sold, trailing only South Africa.
Ontario PM calls off boycott against Diageo’s Crown Royal whisky. The Canadian boycott of US alcohol has now been going on for a year. One might assume that Team Canada stands united – were it not for the dispute over the major Canadian whisky brand Crown Royal (Diageo), which threatened to drive a wedge between Canadians. First, Diageo had put its plans for a new USD 180 million Crown Royal distillery in St. Clair Township, Ontario, on hold. Then it announced in August 2025, that as part of its cost-cutting programme it would close its bottling plant in Amherstburg, Ontario, in February 2026. The blending and bottling of Crown Royal for the US was to be relocated to Alabama, where a big bottling and distribution centre is currently being built. The closure would have resulted in the loss of 200 jobs in Ontario.
Angered by Diageo’s arrogance – the Ontario government was only given a day’s notice of Amherstburg’s shuttering instead of the customary longer advance – Ontario Premier Doug Ford sought to prevent the closure and save those jobs. Since September last year, he has been threatening Diageo with massive consequences. Ontario’s alcohol monopolist, the Liquor Board of Ontario (LCBO), is owned by his government and purchases approximately USD 550 million worth of spirits from Diageo annually.
Mr Ford’s plans for a boycott alarmed the premiers of Manitoba and Quebec, who feared an economic fallout in their provinces. They reminded him to keep Team Canada united. To Canadians’ relief, on 13 February, the boycott was off the table in a face-saving fashion after Diageo committed to investing a comparatively paltry sum of CAD 23 million (USD 17 million) in its supply chain in Ontario and thus in local jobs. Not a word about Amherstburg, though. The plant will be closed as planned at the end of February. The site has already been put up for sale.
German beer sales hit record low in 2025. According to the Federal Statistical Office, beer sales fell by 6.0 percent to around 78 million hl in 2025, a loss of 5 million hl beer. This is the steepest annual sales decline since 1993. Regardless of seasonal fluctuations, the figures confirm the long-term downward trend. Domestic beer sales dropped by 5.8 percent to 64 million hl, which corresponds to 82.5 percent of total output. Beer exports, meanwhile, fell by 7.0 percent to just under 14 million hl. Of this, 7.9 million hl (-1.3 percent) went to EU countries and 5.5 million hl (-14.2 percent) to non-EU countries. The reason exports tumbled is that the Russian market for German beer has almost dried up since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Only 60,000 hl beer were exported to Russia in 2025, compared with over 1 million hl at its peak.
Carlsberg warns of tough 2026, while reporting a 5 percent rise in full-year operating profit. This was helped by cost-cutting and stronger-than-anticipated benefits from its acquisition of soft drinks maker Britvic last year, which also doubled the share of soft drinks in its portfolio to 30 percent of volumes. Yet, Carlsberg warned on 4 February it did not expect any improvements in a stubbornly difficult consumer environment. The world’s third-largest brewer reported organic operating profit of DKK 13.99 billion (USD 2.22 billion) before special items. But net profit came to only DKK 6.9 billion compared with DKK 10.3 billion in 2024. Organic volume sales were down (-2 percent) as well as organic revenue (-0.6 percent) year-on-year.
Carlsberg offloads stake in Tibet venture to Chinese partner. Carlsberg agreed to divest its 50 percent stake in Lhasa Brewery to its Chinese partner, following years of confrontations, media reported on 30 January. Lhasa Brewery was established in 1988 in Lhasa, Tibet, but Carlsberg only became involved in February 2004, when it formed a 50-50 joint venture with Tibet Development. According to Nikkei Asia, Carlsberg’s long-time partner will purchase the stake for CNY 292 million (USD 42 million) in cash. The entire equity value of the joint venture is estimated at CNY 1.2 billion (USD 173 million), which seriously undervalues Carlsberg’s 50 percent stake. But the lower transaction price was agreed upon “through mutual negotiations”, Nikkei Asia said. On top of this, Carlsberg is entitled to a final dividend payment of CNY 60 million (USD 9 million).
New hurdle for East African Breweries’ USD 2.3 billion sale to Asahi. The Nairobi-based construction firm JILK filed a fresh case against Diageo, asking the High Court to urgently secure approximately USD 23,500 from Diageo, the majority shareholder of EABL and its Kenyan subsidiaries. JILK fears that the impending sale of Diageo’s 65 percent stake in EABL to Asahi could frustrate the enforcement of its pending arbitral award and related claims. According to the application, the contractor JILK entered into three construction contracts with Kenya Breweries between October 2017 and March 2018 for civil works related to the refurbishment of the Kisumu brewery. The contracts were executed, and the works handed over, but disputes later arose over payment and project execution. The JILK petition comes just weeks after Bia Tosha, a former Diageo distributor in Kenya, separately moved to court, seeking to block the same transaction while its outstanding litigation against Diageo, EABL and its Kenyan subsidiary KBL over a competition dispute, dating back to 2016, remains unsettled.
For the third year in a row the state-owned brewery Budweiser Budvar reported record sales. In 2025, it sold 1.95 million hl beer (+1 percent), defying the overall beer market, which shrunk in excess of 5 percent. According to management, Budweiser Budvar was able to sell 3 percent more beer in the domestic markets. Budějovický Budvar also continued to maintain a strong position in international markets. Exports remain a substantial part of total sales volumes. Budweiser Budvar, whose history dates back to 1895, did not release any financial results for 2025.
Scottish brewer and bar operator BrewDog will close down its distilling arm after ten years in operation, and stop the production of its spirits brands, including Lonewolf Gin, Abstrakt Vodka, Duo Rum, Casa Rayos Tequila and Ron Bodega rum, over the coming months. The canned cocktail brand Wonderland, however, will continue to be produced by a third party. BrewDog did not confirm how many jobs will be impacted. It is understood that the future of the distillery, which was built in Ellon, Aberdeenshire, in 2015, will be reviewed at a later date. Insiders estimate that the distillery’s capacity is below 500,000 litres/year.
Dramatic fall in number of UK breweries. It is not just pubs disappearing at an alarming rate. The UK now has just 1,578 individual breweries as of 1st January, says the Society of Independent Brewers and Associates (SIBA), compared to 1,715 at the start of 2025, 1,815 in 2024, and 1,828 in 2023 when SIBA’s brewery tracker started. The tracker shows a net brewery closure rate of almost three per week in 2025.
Keystone Brewing sold for GBP 4.5 million (USD 6.2 million). The struggling roll-up, Keystone Brewing Group, was acquired by the newly-formed Great British Drinks Company. Keystone had filed several notices of intent to appoint an administrator since November 2025, which was seen as a protective measure to keep trading as normal, while securing new investment or a potential sale. The deal could save 145 jobs at Yorkshire’s Black Sheep Brewery and its sister brands including Purity Brewing Co, Brew By Numbers, Brick Brewery, North Brewing Company, Magic Rock Brewing and Fourpure Brewing Co. The new owner, Great British Drinks Company, was created to complete the rescue and has already committed itself to a future investment plan of more than GBP 2 million (USD 2.8 million) to restore the business back to growth.
Great British Drinks Company is backed by family entrepreneurs Sunny and Ravi Sharma, who are behind Paramount Retail Group, which spans the pet, home interiors, food, drinks and DIY sectors. They own the Yorkshire craft brewer Saltaire (acquired in 2024).