Defenders of globalisation have plenty to fear. The world stands on the brink of trade wars, the Economist predicted recently. Some will be unleashed by Donald Trump, who hails tariffs as “the greatest thing ever invented”. He has proposed tariffs of 10 percent or 20 percent on imports from around the world. If introduced, Belgian brewers might cry into their beers. Recently, Mr Trump called Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum to inform her that if Mexico doesn’t stop “this onslaught of criminals and drugs” into his country, he will impose a 25 percent tariff on everything Mexico sends north. A first victim could be Constellation Brands, which brews Modelo beers for the US market in Mexico.
Other protectionist clashes could follow, instigated by the EU and other countries, whose prosperity ironically depends on access to foreign markets. Many will be tit-for-tat, but their effects will be painful all over. After the EU slapped tariffs of 45.3 percent on Chinese electric vehicles in October, China retaliated within days and introduced “security deposits” of up to 39 percent on brandy from the EU. French cognac houses are major victims: 95 percent of European brandy exports to China are cognac. To avert the security deposits, cognac producers could move bottling to China. In mid-December, Hennessy will send 1,000 litres of its VSOP cognac to China in order to test the product’s stability. If it is, Hennessy will relocate the VSOP bottling line (600 000 cases p.a.) to China. In response, 500 workers (or half the workforce) at Hennessy’s bottling plant in Cognac went on a two-day strike on 19 November.
Should the Trump administration really build an almighty tariff wall, plenty of countries, both rich and poor, will suffer.
Sales boom for Guinness 0.0. Diageo will invest EUR 30 million (USD 32 million) in its Dublin brewery St James’s Gate to keep up with the rising demand for its alcohol-free Guinness, which was launched in 2020. Media reported that sales of Guinness 0.0 on draught increased by almost 50 percent last year. The new investment will see about 14 percent of the production at St James’s Gate devoted to Guinness 0.0, allowing Diageo to brew about 176 million pints (990,000 hl) of 0.0 in a year. It doubles the capacity from 2023 and brings the total investment to EUR 60 million.
Athletic’s non-alcoholic beers outsell competition in America. Considering that Heineken said in 2019 it would invest USD 50 million each year on marketing Heineken 0.0, it is a big victory for US craft brewer Athletic that this year it overtook Heineken 0.0 as the best-selling non-alcoholic beer in America. Not enough, at the supermarket chain Wholefoods it has become the top-selling beer overall. Having sold just 875 barrels beer in 2018 and 258,000 barrels in 2023, Athletic controls nearly 20 percent of non-alcoholic beer sales in the US this year (12 months until October), expected to total USD 440 million. It is the market leader, ahead of Heineken and Budweiser. Athletic brews only non-alcoholic beers (below 0.5 percent ABV), using what it calls a proprietary process, which does not remove the alcohol from the finished product as is customary.
Irish publicans do it themselves and brew their own beer. Around a dozen of prominent Dublin and Cork publicans invested EUR 1.8 million (USD 1.9 billion) in a new brewery that officially opened on 12 November. Aptly named Changing Times, the brewery is located in Glasnevin, northern Dublin. Presently, 15 of the best-known pubs in the capital and in Cork city offer the beer, with more pubs expected to join soon. The brewing process is being overseen by Shane Long, who founded the Franciscan Well brewery in Cork, which was sold to Molson Coors in 2013. With a staff of nine people, the new brewery is currently producing 100 kegs (50 litres each) a week, but is capable of producing up to 250 kegs a week, or over 10,000 a year. It can also be easily expanded to brew 30,000 kegs of beer (15,000 hl) per annum. Considering that craft beer in Ireland has peaked – some 80 craft brewers had a market share of only 3.5 percent in 2022 – the publicans’ beer project will likely take market share from the already struggling small independents.
Prohibition 2.0? The US Dietary Guidelines 2025-2030 are being updated, and the alcohol industry fears that this edition could bring the first change in alcohol guidance since their inception in 1980 if it touts that there are “no safe levels”. For more than 40 years, the official dietary guidelines have upheld moderate consumption, whereby one drink a day is considered safe for women, and two drinks a day for men. If the next administration recommends a reduction in the volume of alcohol consumption considered safe – or if it goes so far as to follow the World Health Organisation’s monumental declaration last year that there are “no safe levels” – that would be the strongest message yet to the American public.
The alcohol industry is anxiously awaiting the review by an outfit called Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Prevention of Underage Drinking (ICCPUD), which is slated to come out at the end of this year. As this panel is staffed with notorious anti-alcohol activists, the alcohol industry worries that this panel’s review could result in official guidelines which say that “no amount of alcohol is acceptable for a healthy lifestyle”.
An update on Asheville: Hurricane Helene made landfall on 26 September, bringing “the most severe flooding ever observed” to western North Carolina. Many Asheville breweries are still reeling in the wake of historic destruction. While Sierra Nevada’s brewery was reopened less than three weeks later – no major flooding occurred – others were not so lucky. New Belgium’s brewery, for example, is expected to be running again by the end of the year at the earliest. Smaller breweries may not recover at all. The Federal Emergency Management Agency says that nearly half of small businesses never reopen after a natural disaster. A major issue is the lack of clean water. In early November, “chocolate soup”-like water was flowing through the majority of Asheville. There is no timeline on when potable water will be restored. One option that some breweries are looking into is buying or renting tanker trucks. But that is expensive. Breweries find themselves trapped in a vicious circle: If they cannot brew, they cannot bring much staff back. As Asheville still feels like a ghost town, the lack of tourists and customers will keep beer sales depressed indefinitely. Even before Helene hit, many worried how restaurants would fare during the slower winter season. Customer traffic has drastically declined during the past few years.
That may explain why, on 1 November, 30 to 40 service staff at Wicked Weed’s Funkatorium brewpub and adjoining Cultura restaurant were laid off. In mid-October they were told the venues would reopen in mid-November. Now they remain closed “temporarily”. If even AB-InBev, the owner of Wicked Weed since 2017, cannot tie a struggling business over – what are less moneyed brewers going to do?
Molson Coors closes historic Leinenkugel’s brewery in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, after 157 years on 17 January 2025. Additionally, Leinenkugel’s 10th Street brewery in Milwaukee will be shuttered while beer production will be consolidated at Molson Coors’s macro brewery in Milwaukee. A total of 90 jobs will be lost. Having terminated a contract brewing agreement with Pabst and sold its remaining craft breweries to cannabis firm Tilray, these breweries were adding to Molson Coors’ excess production capacities.
Molson Coors takes controlling stake in Zoa Energy brand, which was co-founded by the actor Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Launched in 2021, the founders aimed at creating clean, natural energy drinks, which contain low or no sugar. Zoa’s more recent sales figures give reason for concern. After passing USD 100 million in sales in its first year, Zoa has since contracted. Sales declined to USD 61 million (Total US – Multi-Outlet+ with convenience) in the 52 weeks ending 6 September 2024, according to data from Circana, which was quoted by the website bevnet.com.
Heineken Austria hikes prices twice this year. A looming fine by Austria’s cartel court, redundancies, outsourcing, and now the second price hike in a year: you cannot say that it is smooth sailing for Heineken’s Austrian subsidiary and beer market leader, Brau Union. Following a price increase of 3.6 percent at the beginning of the year, prices will rise by an average of 3.4 percent in December for several of Brau Union’s brands. The price hike is above the rate of inflation. The unpopular price hike adds to Brau Union’s list of negative news. The firm was expected to cut between 40 and 50 jobs at its Linz headquarters, after outsourcing finance and admin functions to Kraków, Poland, where Heineken’s Polish unit is based. The Linz real estate will be sold and staff will move into rented offices in two years’ time. This year, the brewer also demoted its brewery in Villach, Carinthia, to a “city brewery”, with output dropping to 7,000 hl beer annually, from 140,000 hl before, which resulted in several redundancies. Brau Union had 2,700 employees, nine breweries, a beer output of 5.5 million hl and revenues of some EUR 850 million in 2022.
Heineken has bought a minority stake in Gillian Anderson’s UK-based functional drinks brand G Spot. G Spot was set up in 2023 by the American actress Gillian Anderson, best known for the TV series Sex Education and X Files. The business makes low-calorie, sugar-free adaptogen and nootropics-fuelled drinks, which are targeted at women. We do not know why Ms Anderson chose the risqué name of G Spot for her wellness drinks. Allegedly, they hit “the sweet spot between taste and functionality”. The range features four SKUs: Arouse, Lift, Protect and Soothe, all made with somewhat exotic ingredients.
The size of investment was not disclosed, but filings at Companies House for the business revealed a Series A investment of almost GBP 1 million (USD 1.3 million) at a valuation of about GBP 13 million. G Spot also raised an additional GBP 600,000 plus in the equity raise, the trade publication, The Grocer, reported.
Coopers Brewery defies the struggling Australian beer market. A new lager beer release plus a surge in homebrewing kits fuelled strong sales growth for Australia’s largest independently-owned brewer Coopers. It posted a 1.5 percent rise in total beer sales for the 2024 financial year (ended 30 June), defying a year-on-year 2.6 percent decline in total Australian beer sales. Coopers’ beer sales, excluding non-alcoholic beers, hit 787,000 hl, up from 776,000 hl the previous year. Profit-before-tax was AUD 32.8 million (USD 22 million), compared with AUD 28.5 million the previous year. Despite the successful release of Coopers Australian Lager, Coopers Original Pale Ale retained its position as the brewery’s biggest selling beer.