Diageo’s CEO Debra Crew has stepped down with immediate effect. It does not happen often that the CEO of a major listed company resigns three weeks ahead of posting annual results. The departure of Diageo’s CEO Debra Crew on 16 July must have been so sudden – albeit by mutual agreement – that Diageo’s Chief Financial Officer Nik Jhangiani is taking over in the interim as the board searches for a successor. Ms Crew’s time at the helm of Diageo was just two years. But cynical (or brutally honest) commentators say that her departure has felt possible for at least half that period. Her first problem was that she followed in the footsteps of the late Sir Ivan Menezes, whose strategy of “premiumisation” had reliably hiked profit margins year after year. Her second problem was that she started with a profit warning in November 2023. What must have hastened her demise is Diageo’s share price performance, which fell by 40 percent during her tenure.
Diageo eyes sale of its majority stake in listed brewer East African Breweries (EABL). EABL has a market value of about USD 1.2 billion and Diageo is its largest shareholder with a 65 percent stake. The company has appointed Bank of America and Goldman Sachs to advise on the process, Bloomberg reported on 28 July. This review aligns with Diageo’s push towards an asset-light model in Africa whereby the group seeks to free up capital and boost growth after a tough period. Analysts estimate that the business could fetch up to USD 2 billion. Founded in 1922 as Kenya Breweries Ltd., EABL is a dominant player in East Africa’s alcoholic beverages market. Potential buyers could include Heineken, Castel Group, and AB-InBev.
The WHO wants prices on sugary drinks, booze, and fags raised by 50 percent. It is pushing countriesto raise their prices by 50 percent over the next ten years through taxation. This is its strongest backing yet for taxes to help tackle public health issues. The initiative, dubbed “3 by 35”, was launched at the United Nations Finance for Development conference in Seville in early July. The UN health agency said the move would help cut consumption of the products as well as raising money for poorer countries at a time when development aid is shrinking and public debt rising.
Missouri signs the American Beer Act, a tax cut to support local industries. On 10 July, Governor Mike Kehoe, a Republican, signed the American Beer Act into law outside AB-InBev’s St. Louis Brewery. It will cut taxes on US beer to the lowest in the nation in an effort to support the local malt industry, manufacturing and jobs overall. The bill outlines that excise will be cut to USD 0.62 per barrel as of 1 January 2026, from the current rate of USD 1.86 per barrel. The USD 1.86 tax per barrel on imported malt beverages continues to apply. The Governor did not disclose what the revenue shortfall will be for Missouri. AB-InBev is not the only brewery to profit. For Missouri’s more than 170 craft breweries the act represents tangible support.
Private equity swallowed the BrewDog Unicorn, the Financial Times said. Analysing BrewDog’s 2017 deal with private equity outfit TSG Consumer Partners (TSG) that established James Watt as the founder of a unicorn (a company worth USD 1 billion) and made his fortune, the FT, on 17 July, concluded that the 130,000 or so “Equity Punks” are sitting on worthless shares, unless a generous buyer suddenly appears for the lossmaking BrewDog. At the time many wondered if TSG really believed in that valuation: or why would it insist on an 18 percent compounding coupon? That compound annual return of 18 percent becomes payable at the moment of any sale, initial public offering, or liquidation – ahead of the other shareholders. Having run the numbers, the Financial Times argued that the theoretical value of the GBP 213 million, spent by TSG in 2017, has since grown to pass the GBP 800 million (USD 1.1 billion) mark in April this year. If a buyer were found, the 18-year old, ex-growth beer and bar business might fetch GBP 300 million on a volume basis (BrewDog sells 1 million hl beer and beverages annually).
BrewDog’s co-founder Martin Dickie, 42, is hoping to become the market leader in medical cannabis. He is planning to invest GBP 20 million (USD 27 million) into his medical cannabis company over the next five years. Mr Dickie, who founded BrewDog with James Watt nearly 20 years ago, now runs Waterside Pharmaceuticals, the newspaper The Independent reported on 12 July. With 98 percent of the UK’s medical cannabis currently imported – estimated at 15.5 tons in 2024 -, Mr Dickie sees huge potential for his business, which is based near Newburgh, Aberdeenshire, and is a Scottish first. There are only two other smaller facilities growing medical cannabis in the UK, both in England.
In the US, hemp THC beverages are pitting hemp firms against cannabis firms. Some marijuana companies and trade groups are pushing US Congress to close a loophole that allows the production and sale of intoxicating substances derived from legal hemp. The hemp industry, however, wants to leave the federal definition of hemp unchanged. The current Farm Bill is set to expire at the end of the fiscal year 2025. This means Congress will need to reauthorise or revise the existing legislation. Many lawmakers, who backed hemp legalisation then, hoped that it would invite farmers to grow hemp for fibre and grain purposes. Alas, they did not realise they were approving an intoxicating substance. Intoxicating products, while a boon to the hemp industry’s economic outlook, challenged state-legal cannabis industries. The lower cost and greater availability of intoxicating hemp THC products made them a potent rival. The beauty of these hemp THC beverages is that – unlike cannabis-derived THC products, which must be sold in dispensaries – they can be sold in convenience stores, petrol stations and liquor stores.
Constellation’s beer sales decline in quarter until end of May. CEO Bill Newlands blamed “non-structural socioeconomic factors” for his firm’s declining beer sales. Beer depletions dipped 2.6 percent, while shipments (to retailers and consumers) dropped 3.3 percent. These socioeconomic factors refer to consumer behaviour, affected by the government’s immigration policy, which seems to have led to fewer social gatherings at restaurants and fewer drinking occasions at home for Hispanic consumers. But during the recent investor call Mr Newlands added that nowadays all American shoppers are concerned about higher prices.
Your wish is my command: Coca-Cola to launch cola with cane sugar. After a nudge from President Donald Trump to use cane sugar instead of corn syrup in its beverages Coca-Cola quickly complied. A new product line will be launched in the autumn, media reported on 22 July. However, Coke has made it clear that the new cola line will just be an additional offering. Corn syrup will continue to be used in its core range. Since the 1980s, sugary Coca-Cola drinks have been sweetened with high fructose corn syrup, which is not only cheaper, but also sweeter.
Indigenous groups oppose Heineken’s brewery project in Mexico. Mayan communities and activists have condemned the construction of a Heineken brewery in Kanasin in the state of Yucatan and reject the alleged indigenous consultation that the company claims to have carried out for approval at the end of 2024. “We know nothing about this consultation,” declared the communities. On 11 June, the Minister of Economy had announced at President Claudia Sheinbaum’s morning press conference that Heineken would invest more than USD 2.7 billion in projects in Mexico – including the company’s eighth brewery in the country. The 4 million hl brewery alone will cost more than USD 430 million. The Mayan communities fear that people will suffer from pollution and water shortages because of the new brewery.
German beer sales drop nearly 7 percent in the five months through May, compared to the same period last year.The industry-wide loss of around 2.3 million hl beer is about twice as high as the usual annual decline in the perennially shrinking German beer market. Even in the pandemic year of 2021 during lockdown, more beer was sold during this period. The industry will hardly be able to make up for the unexpectedly high decline in the further course of 2025. The good weather in the first half of 2025 should actually have helped brewers and the on-premise to sell more beer, but it didn’t. Brewers suspect that people hold on to their wallets and skip that second or third beer they would have enjoyed previously.
Germany’s Oettinger closes another brewery. Having shuttered its brewery in Gotha three years ago, the budget beer producer Oettinger is now also closing its brewery in Braunschweig, Lower Saxony, the company announced on 21 July. Both sites had a capacity to produce beer and non-alcoholic beverages in excess of 1 million hl each. The privately-owned Oettinger, which ranks among Germany’s major breweries, plans to relocate its brewing activities from Braunschweig to its two remaining sites, in Oettingen in the south of the country and Mönchengladbach in the west. The closure is scheduled for the spring of 2026 and will affect some 150 jobs.
Russian media cheer: Russia ahead of Germany in BarthHaas ranking. For the first time, Baltika and United Breweries Holding (OPH) have entered the BarthHaas ranking of the world’s top 40 breweries in 2024 – and they were ahead of German rivals, Russian media hooted with jingoistic glee on 3 July. They noted that the entry of Russian companies into the prestigious ranking was made possible thanks to their “becoming independent from foreign structures”. Baltika (formerly Carlsberg), took 12th place; United Breweries Holding OPH (formerly Heineken) ranked 24th. Another detail did not go unnoticed: German breweries lost their previous positions as they saw beer outputs decline. The explanation given: “[Russian] analysts attribute this to the consequences of anti-Russian sanctions, which complicated the export and supply of raw materials for German firms.” In truth, there are no EU sanctions on beer exports to Russia. If German beer exports to Russia have tumbled since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, it is because Russia has massively hiked import duties in an effort to protect domestic brewers from foreign competition.