Pernod Ricard in merger talks with Jack Daniel’s maker Brown-Forman. This prospective tie-up will test whether the powerful families behind the two drinks groups can unite in a slowing global drinks market, while maintaining their respective influences. The companies announced their intent on 26 March but gave no financial details and said there was no certainty a transaction would result. The merger, if pulled off, would be a defensive move to counter industry challenges like declining sales and tariff pressures. The immediate benefit would be annual cost savings of as much as USD 450 million, according to Jefferies, a bank. It would also create a stronger challenger to global leader Diageo and give the combined group more clout in the critical US market amid intensifying trade tensions. However, it would not automatically fix the most pressing problem: sluggish sales.
Heineken’s Tiger Beer to end production in Singapore. The brewing of Heineken and Tiger Beer in Singapore will be progressively phased out over the next two years as production will be shifted to its breweries in Malaysia and Vietnam, Heineken said on 24 March. Some 130 production workers will be made redundant from now until the end of 2027. Heineken acquired Asia Pacific Breweries Singapore (APBS), which has brewed Tiger Beer since 1932, from Fraser & Neave in 2012.
Trumer brewery in Berkeley closes. Craft brewer Firestone Walker has acquired the US rights to Trumer pils from the Texas firm Gambrinus, the brewer of Shiner Bock. It plans to move production from the Trumer brewery in Berkeley, San Francisco, to its own Paso Robles brewery in California and start serving the award-winning German-style pilsner as soon as this summer. The deal, announced on 27 March, will add roughly 28,000 barrels of Trumer to Firestone Walker’s output, pushing its annual sales to over 500,000 barrels beer.
Diageo sells Indian cricket team for USD 1.8 billion. Diageo is in line for a cash windfall from the sale of the Indian Premier League Royal Challengers Bengaluru cricket team, which was sold to a consortium backed by Blackstone for approximately USD 1.8 billion. This transaction (26 March) is a key outcome of its strategic portfolio review, Diageo initiated in November 2025, which is intended to strengthen the group’s balance sheet. It also signals a deliberate shift away from non-core assets.
BrewDog sold to Tilray. The company that once called itself “the world’s most valuable craft brewery” with a valuation of USD 2 billion back in 2021, sold its key assets for GBP 33 million (USD 44 million). Tilray Brands (2 March) gobbled up BrewDog’s UK brewing operations, a distribution centre, brand IP, and eleven “profitable” UK and Ireland bars. What was once the biggest independent brewery in the UK will join a roster of North American craft breweries owned by Tilray. Before the sale, the company employed around 1,400 people. Reportedly, 733 jobs were preserved. But nearly 500 jobs were lost when 38 bars, including eight in London, had to be closed because they were not included in the rescue deal. BrewDog’s 18 franchise bars in the UK and elsewhere will continue to operate, though. Tilray are getting plenty of tangible assets for their pocket money. The brewery in Ellon, which came on-stream in 2012, would have been expensive to build. Tilray CEO, Irwin Simon said that “you couldn’t replace the brewery for GBP 100 million today.” Then there are several BrewDog “Outpost” bars with on-site microbreweries, allowing for experimental, small-batch brewing directly at the venue. The London Waterloo bar, a redevelopment of the former Eurostar terminal, is huge with all kinds of features. While the investment for the 2,700 sqm bar was not disclosed, it must have cost nearer to USD 17 million, which BrewDog sank into its similarly-sized, custom-built Las Vegas bar in 2022. Tilray has since bought bits of BrewDog USA and BrewDog Australia too.
BrewDog is a cautionary tale: rapid expansion outpaced financial discipline, and preference shareholders got first call on whatever was left. Tilray obtains a globally recognized craft beer brand for essentially nothing. The 220,000 people who funded the brand’s growth receive nothing. Selling craft beer is hard. Running 100 pubs is harder. Doing both while haemorrhaging cash with a PE firm breathing down your neck is nearly impossible. BrewDog found that out the hard way.
Tilray also buys BrewDog’s US assets. The announcement (16 March) came just two weeks after the company acquired BrewDog’s brewing operations in Australia and the United Kingdom. Under the deal, whose financial terms were not disclosed, Tilray will take on BrewDog’s brewery, bar, and hotel in Columbus, as well as the bars in New Albany and Cleveland – all in Ohio – plus the bar in Las Vegas. Tilray said the Ohio acquisition aligns with its strategy to acquire and scale strong local craft beer brands in their core markets. The transaction is expected to close later this year, pending regulatory approvals.
A few days previously, Tilray’s CEO, Irwin Simon, told the UK trade magazine, The Grocer, that BrewDog had no money left to pay its staff when Tilray rescued it from collapse. It was in such dire financial straits that it had next to no funds.
Tilray’s shares struggle despite BrewDog deal. The transaction has failed to excite its investors. Tilray’s share price fell 3.2 percent to close at USD 7.36 on 3 March. Management acknowledged that the acquisition will make a limited contribution to earnings in the short term. Only from the 2027 financial year onwards, the integration is expected to generate annual net sales of USD 200 million, and a modest EBITDA of between USD 6 million and USD 8 million. The figures underline that while BrewDog’s assets came cheap, the acquisition is a turnaround bet, not a plug-and-play. BrewDog has been burning cash for years and the UK on-premise is struggling. Tilray bills itself as “a global lifestyle and consumer packaged goods company leading at the nexus of the beverage, cannabis, and wellness industries.” The question is whether this hodgepodge of products will actually lead to profits. After its initial public offering (IPO) as a pure-play cannabis firm in 2018, Tilray’s stock price skyrocketed to USD 300 per share. At that point, Wall Street was enamoured of cannabis companies. There was a good reason: Many expected that cannabis would become federally legal quickly. It hasn’t. Since then, the cannabis industry has been struggling with fierce competition – among legal producers and from purveyors of the illegal kind. So Tilray was forced to expand into another struggling industry: craft beer. The – increasingly long-term – plan is to eventually use the breweries and their distribution network to sell cannabis-infused drinks, if and when they become federally legal in the United States.
Heineken Austria: another distributor speaks out. The competition watchdog, BWB, is increasing its pressure on Brau Union, Heineken’s local subsidiary. In the ongoing proceedings at Vienna’s Cartel Court over Brau Union’s alleged market power abuses, BWB called yet another distributor to witness on 16 March. The unnamed representative from the distributor Getränkewelt described how, in his view, the brewer has leaned more heavily on its logistics partners over the years. “Brau Union’s goal was to wipe us out,” he said. “They wanted to get rid of us because we were the market leader in East Tyrol.” The cartel court proceedings focus on Brau Union’s business dealings with its beverage logistics partners and whether undue economic pressure was exerted on them. The East Tyrolean beverage distributor Getränkewelt has since been sold to a subsidiary of the privately-owned Ottakringer brewery in 2025. It was no longer possible to continue the operation economically, the former Getränkewelt co-owner told the court. After the sale, the witness became the sales manager at Getränkewelt, which continues to do drop shipments for Brau Union.
In the antitrust proceedings, Heineken Austria has submitted to the BWB (19 March) a new – and less onerous – framework for contracts with its distributors and logistics partners. The main purpose is to safeguard the proprietary business of its distributors. This shall allow them to decide on their product range, their sales territory and the customers they serve. “A key objective of the proceedings has been achieved, namely ensuring fairness for the future,” said BWB Director Natalie Harsdorf in a press release. This is “particularly important for all market participants, especially small and medium-sized enterprises”.
Irish C&C Group acquires craft brewers Drygate and Innis & Gunn. Irish drinks company C&C (Magners cider, Tennent’s Lager) has taken full ownership of the Glasgow craft brewery Drygate, the only microbrewery operating in Glasgow’s historical centre. The full takeover acquisition became known on 15 March through C&C’s release of its annual accounts. Reportedly, C&C acquired the remaining 51 percent in 2025 for EUR 900,000 (USD 1 million). This was a non-cash transaction. Innis & Gunn, the Edinburgh-based brewer behind a wide range of ales, was not so lucky after it was bought out of administration by C&C. The Irish group only acquired the rights to the Innis & Gunn name and intellectual property in a GBP 4.5 million (USD 6 million) deal. All 105 staff employed at Innis & Gunn’s pubs in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dundee, as well as at its brewery in Perth, will be made redundant.
Survival and energy prices top the agenda of Europe’s indie brewers. Just over two years ago, small brewers from across Europe came together and established the Independent Brewers of Europe to fight for and defend independence and ensure that drinkers can continue to enjoy a great tasting beer wherever they are in Europe. Their new report (18 March) shows that in the face of geopolitical turmoil, energy prices are the top challenge. One in two independent breweries expects either no growth or a decline in turnover. Yet behind these sobering figures lies a sector determined to adapt, invest and defend Europe’s authentic beer culture. The report, which covers more than 3,000 independent breweries, provides a detailed snapshot of the pressures and opportunities shaping the sector in 12 European countries, from Spain to Switzerland and Finland to France.
Molson Coors shutters Sharp’s brewery. Molson Coors had miserable numbers in 2025, with revenue and profit down. To cut costs, it has set out plans to shut its Sharp’s Brewery in Cornwall in south-west England, with around 50 redundancies at the site and 150 elsewhere. The move is part of broader changes to the group’s UK and Ireland business. Already, at the end of January, Molson Coors closed the Franciscan Well brewery in Cork, Ireland, with the loss of 15 jobs. Neither the brewery nor its craft beer brands had attracted viable interest, Molson Coors said.
Dutch court to award MTB at least EUR 83 million in damages. Courts are notoriously slow, but a milestone has finally been reached in the proceedings of Greek Macedonian Thrace Brewery (MTB) against Heineken and its subsidiary Athenian Brewery: The Amsterdam District Court rendered an interim judgment (18 February) on the correct forensic process, which will calculate the monetary value of losses MTB suffered from Heineken and Athenian Brewery’s market dominance abuses dating back to the 1980s. One of the obstacles to damages actions is putting a monetary figure to damages. This has been overcome by the recent judgment: The Amsterdam District Court accepted the quantification model by Oxera, an economics and finance consultancy, on behalf of MTB. Based on its assessment, the principal damages suffered by MTB amount to at least EUR 43 million. Adding statutory interest, the full damage award will be in excess of EUR 83 million (USD 97 million). Experts’ costs will also be awarded, provided that these are further substantiated by MTB.