An anniversary of sorts is coming up. Ten years ago, on 5 October 2016, SABMiller was delisted from both the London and Johannesburg stock exchanges and the globalisation of the brewing industry came to an end. There was no other brewer of comparable scale left to buy and this is precisely why the deal happened. The phenomenally expensive takeover of SABMiller (USD 120 billion including debt) by AB-InBev had dragged on for about a year, while AB-InBev “slayed and “frayed” (via massive asset sales) the world’s second-largest brewer. It basically only wanted SABMiller’s strongholds in Africa and the Andes.
At the end of 2016, AB-InBev’s debt stood at an eye-watering USD 108 billion. But financial commentators, punch drunk on “Megabrew” as the deal was called, already talked up the next deal: AB-InBev buying Coca-Cola. How AB-InBev would finance it – Coke then had a market capitalisation of USD 180 million – never entered into their takeover fantasies.
Paying down its mountain of debt took a decade. AB-InBev’s net debt stood at USD 60.9 billion at the end of 2025, or 2.9x normalized EBITDA, against 5.5x in 2016 and a stated optimal level of around 2x. So, was it all worth it? What is settled: AB-InBev sold roughly USD 24 billion of assets to satisfy four competition regulators, cut its dividend, disposed of Australia’s brewer CUB to Asahi, and floated its Asian business, all within three years of closing the transaction. The jury is still out on whether the deal bought growth or only scale. The bull case points to unassailable positions across Africa and the Andean markets, the only beer geographies promising growth in a declining global market, acquired at the last moment they were available. The bear case, on the other hand, points to AB-InBev’s EBITDA margin (35.8 percent in 2025) which is lower than it was in 2014 (39.4 percent), revenue that has risen slowly across a decade and a dividend that took years to rebuild.
What is contestable is whether the price tag and ten years of balance sheet repair were the right price for SABMiller. AB-InBev is only now in a position to find out whether the original rationale was worth it. Since investors are rarely given over to reflections on the past, this is probably a moot point.
Russia grabs Nestle assets in biggest seizure since 2024. One day ahead of Russia’s Duma elections (18-20 September), whose outcome was predictable, President Vladimir Putin ordered the Russian businesses of Swiss food giant Nestle and French supermarket chain Auchan to be placed under temporary administration by a company called L.E.V. Menedzhment. According to Bloomberg, that company was registered in Moscow in 2024 with a charter capital of just RUB 15,000 (USD 177) and a single employee. Mr Putin’s decree on Nestle and Auchan was unexpected, says Bloomberg. The Kremlin had not used the mechanism since at least 2024, when the breweries belonging to AB-InBev-Efes, a joint venture between AB-InBev and Turkey’s Anadolu Efes, were placed under the temporary management of the Vmeste Group. The brewing group was renamed Napitki Vmeste (“Drinks Together”) in September 2025.
As part of his whirlwind visit to Ireland, US President Donald Trump promised on 13 September that he will scrap tariffs on Irish whiskey. This could restore a level playing field with Scotland and Northern Ireland, which had already enjoyed zero tariffs on the drink. However, Mr Trump did not say when exactly he would drop the tariffs. The US administration must formalise the exemption through an official decree. Mr Trump, who has used tariffs as the cornerstone of his trade policy, promised to drop tariffs on whisky made in the UK in April, saying the move was “in honour” of King Charles III, who had made a state visit to the United States. Tariffs were official scrapped in July. Irish distillers exported EUR 450 million (USD 517 million) worth of whiskey to the US in 2025 and purchased EUR 80 million worth of American bourbon casks. For comparison, Scottish distillers exported GBP 933 million (USD 1.25 billion) worth of whisky to the US in the same year.
Diageo to face almost three weeks of strikes at Cameronbridge Distillery. Staff at Diageo’s largest Scottish distillery will go on strike for almost three weeks if the drinks group pushes ahead with plans to cut hundreds of jobs across its Scottish operations. Over half of the 200 employees at Cameronbridge, Europe’s largest grain distillery, which produces whisky for blends including Johnnie Walker and Buchanan’s, will participate in strikes starting on 28 September. The lay-offs come as Diageo cuts production at distilleries across Scotland. They are part of a deep restructuring initiated by CEO Sir Dave Lewis, who hopes to trim USD 1 billion in costs over the next three years in response to a slump in demand. Scotland will be disproportionately affected by Diageo’s planned lay-offs because of the group’s extensive whisky operations in the country. Diageo, which also produces Talisker and Lagavulin, owns some 30 distilleries. It employs 3,000 people across its local distilleries and bottling plants.
America’s largest wine distributor to pay USD12.5 million after investigation into pay-to-play scheme. Southern Glazer’s Wine and Spirits, one of the largest alcohol distributors in the US, has settled with US federal prosecutors over an investigation into improper payments and benefits. It struck a non-prosecution agreement with the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) and agreed to pay USD 12.5 million to the US Treasury. The TTB had found evidence for the widespread illegal practice of pay-to-play, whereby licensed retailers are enticed to carry certain brands, give shelf space and displays etc with cash payments, tickets to events, luxury trips and other inducements. The DOJ said the company took out false invoices to conceal the payments.
Brown-Forman CEO says US whiskey demise is “exaggerated” as family feud simmers. Lawson Whiting, the retiring CEO of drinks group Brown-Forman (Jack Daniel’s), played down the demise of the American whiskey category, stating (2 September) that “interest is very high”, even though demand in developed markets, including Germany, France and the UK, is likely to remain under pressure this year. Renewed trade tensions with Canada pose an additional challenge. The firm now anticipates organic net sales to be approximately flat in fiscal 2027, whilst organic operating income is expected to decline in the 3 percent to 5 percent range.
The outlook cannot please the members of the Brown family that still control the firm. According to the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg, two outsider heirs sent a letter to the main family faction, accusing the board of “rewarding failure, and doing so lavishly and publicly”. The letter called out both the company’s falling stock price amid slumping sales, the failure to reach a merger deal earlier this year with French spirits company Pernod Ricard, and the board’s refusal to even consider a USD 15 billion offer from Kentucky bourbon maker Sazerac.
As if another proof were needed that craft beer has come and gone in Germany: After 13 years of trying, the national brewer, Bitburger Group, terminated its craft beer label Craftwerk, which had been the pet project of former Technical MD Jan Niewodniczanski. He departed a year ago and soon afterwards Bitburger phased out Craftwerk’s beers. Any remaining stock will be sold off. However, Bitburger is not completely exiting from the craft beer segment. The Crew Republic brand, established in Munich in 2011 and acquired by Bitburger in tranches since 2021, will continue to be brewed and distributed in export markets and select German pubs. Consumer interest in new wave craft beer has been on the wane for years. Observers put its market share at below one percent.
CAMRA membership declined to an eight-year low in 2025 and its accounts show it made a pre-tax loss of GBP 800,000 (USD 1.1 million) last year. Membership dropped to 143,038 (for the financial year ending 30 November 2025), down from over 192,000 eight years prior. It has since risen, especially over the summer, after CAMRA published its report on the UK beer industry. In it, CAMRA accuses the country’s four Big Brewers of misleading consumers with fake imports (many popular “continental” or “imported” lagers sold in pubs and supermarkets are actually brewed in the UK) and fake craft beers. Seven out of the ten best-selling “craft beers” in the UK are produced by four global conglomerates (AB-InBev, Heineken, Carlsberg, Molson Coors).
Kenya clears Diageo’s sale of EABL stake to Asahi. The competition regulator finally okayed Diageo’s sale of its 65 percent stake in East African Breweries (EABL) to Japan’s Asahi Holdings. The London-listed firm announced in December 2025 that it was selling its stake in EABL to Asahi for USD 2.3 billion. While antitrust approvals had already been obtained in Uganda and Tanzania, the Competition Authority of Kenya only made its conditions known recently. It directed EABL to “reserve sufficient funds from the transaction consideration to meet any outstanding liabilities,” Bloomberg News reported. The regulator also required EABL to reserve 20 percent of its cooler space in retail outlets for competitors’ drinks.
Thieves are becoming more and more brazen. On 31 August, a Bank Holiday in the UK, two lorries drove into an industrial estate in Runcorn near Liverpool and hooked up with two fully loaded semi-trailers holding about 800 kegs (70,000 pints) of Guinness. The value of the stolen beer was GBP 115,000 (USD 155,000), or more than GBP 200,000 if you include the trailers. One wagon-load was taken at about 7:45 pm local time and a second one at about 9:30 pm. Reportedly, it took the thieves just ten minutes to make off with their loot. Since they did not crash through the gates this raises the question how they managed to bypass the usual security protocols. The theft came just weeks after a beer heist in the US captured the public’s attention. On 17 August, a truck packed with reportedly more than 1,500 cases (34,000 cans) of Pabst Blue Ribbon and Old Milwaukee beer vanished from a depot in Montclair, California. Police claim the missing haul could be part of two daring thefts in a single morning, valued at a total of USD 70,000. In the first incident, a beer shipment bound for Tucson, Arizona, was picked up for delivery around 10 am local time, but ten days later it still had not arrived. About an hour later, a company claiming to be a subcontractor, used fraudulent paperwork to arrange the pickup of Anheuser-Busch and Pabst Blue Ribbon products.
Ten days after the heist, Pabst Blue Ribbon took to Instagram: “To the thief: we don’t fault you for wanting to brag to your friends how much PBR you have, we just wish you obtained it the honourable way. PS: this is real and we are deadly serious.” The company gave the thief an ultimatum of exactly 18 days and 44 minutes (a nod to 1844, the year Pabst Brewing was founded?) to return the truck with no questions asked. Although Pabst Blue Ribbon has reportedly offered up to USD 20,000 for information, the beer’s whereabouts remain unknown.
US President Trump signed a series of executive orders banning the import of Canadian alcohol, dairy and motorcycles as of 29 September.The ban came hours after Canada, on 8 September, imposed a 50 percent tariff on American clothing, cheese, metals and wood. Because the Trump administration had made last-minute demands that the Canadian government felt would undermine its and national sovereignty, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney had walked away from trade talks last month. This has resulted in a dramatic tit-for-tat escalation.
However, Canadian alcohol shipped to the US in bulk is exempted from the ban. This is to the benefit of large multinational drinks firms like Diageo. They can continue to ship their alcohol in bulk to the US, where it is bottled locally. Small, independent Canadian breweries and distilleries that export their products in bottles are severely affected by the ban.
Gallup poll shows US alcohol consumption at historic lows – really? Just 54 percent of around 1,200 Americans aged 18+ told Gallup in its recent poll that they “have occasion to use alcoholic beverages”. Gallup’s trend data also shows that beer’s stated preference among regular drinkers has fallen to 36 percent (a 7-point drop since 2016), narrowing its lead over spirits to just four percentage points. Can this be true? National Beer Wholesalers Association (NBWA) Chief Economist Lester Jones immediately pushed back heavily against these findings, characterising them as “squishy numbers” and an “almost non-story” due to statistical limitations.
Mr Jones cautioned the alcohol industry against overreacting to these headline metrics. He points out that Gallup uses a “very small random sample”. Because it carries a +/- 4-point margin of error, the “true” percentage of drinkers could easily be as high as 58 percent – a figure perfectly in line with historical metrics across the past 80 years. Despite the narrative that a massive generational shift is decimating beer demand, NBWA industry data notes that actual consumer purchasing habits have shown remarkable stability over the trailing decade.
The consolidation of Heineken’s European brewery network continues. In Switzerland, the Dutch brewer will invest a double-digit million figure of Swiss francs in its Lucerne facility. A new “city brewery” will be built on the 38,000-sqm grounds of the Eichhof brewery, which also doubles as Heineken’s Swiss headquarters. In a press release, Heineken announced that Eichhof products will continue to be brewed in Lucerne, but also limited-edition and seasonal specialty beers. Larger production volumes will be shifted to Heineken’s Calanda brewery in Chur. The new facility is scheduled to open in 2030. Based on the published sketch, it is clear that this “city brewery” will be a smaller production unit. Observers put its capacity at 25,000 hl to 50,000 hl per year – a fraction of Eichhof’s erstwhile brewing capacity of 480,000 hl in 2008.
Like in Austria’s town of Villach, where Heineken opened another “city brewery” (7,000 hl per annum) in spring to replace a larger one (300,000 hl per annum), Heineken probably wants to avoid any damage to the Eichhof brand, in the event of a complete relocation of production. “Regionality” is a major focus for Swiss consumers, even more important than “specialty” products.
What an ignominious end. Sapporo plans 200 layoffs at Stone’s Escondido headquarters after selling the brand to Firestone Walker. The first 58 workers are expected to be laid off in October. The cuts include workers in warehouse, logistics, packaging, and quality assurance roles, along with eleven brewers. More than 200 employees are expected to be affected through the broader layoff plan. Sapporo will keep Stone’s East Coast brewery in Richmond, Virginia, where it will brew its own brands for the US market. In April, Sapporo, which acquired Stone in 2022 for USD 165 million, sold the brand to Paso Robles-based Firestone Walker and Duvel Moortgat USA for an undisclosed sum. The deal included Stone’s brands and four hospitality locations in California.
The world’s biggest fast-food chain Mixue is moving into pubs. Much has been made of the renaissance of standing-up bars or micropubs recent years. But no one beats China’s Fresh Beer Fulujia chain. The company, whose name translates as “Lucky Deer”, has opened more than 3,200 franchised micropubs across the country since 2021, making it the world’s largest bar chain. Kitted out in gaudy red colours, Fulujia’s premises are tiny – often less than 10 sqm with no dine-in seats, and only two staff members – but they serve about 20 beers on draft, packaged in plastic cups or flexible stand-up pouches for takeaway. More impressive than its beers are its prices. The Economist reported that a pint uniformly sells for as little as 5.9 yuan (USD 0.87). The most expensive product range is the fruit, milk, and tea beer series at 9.9 yuan (USD 1.48) per 500 ml. Obviously, Fulujia’s flavour profiles are closer to fancy teas than traditional beer. Since October 2025, the company has been majority-owned by Mixue Bingcheng, a tea and cold-drinks mega-chain that has around 60,000 outlets worldwide (more than McDonald’s). Reportedly, Mixue splashed out USD 41 million for a 53 percent stake.
Russia reclassifies beer, wines and vapes as “Strategic Goods”. Under the updated Russian Criminal Code, individuals caught bringing these items across the Russian border or the Eurasian Economic Union without proper customs clearance face up to five years in prison if the shipment exceeds RUB 100,000 (USD 1,100). That means bringing just two bottles of premium vintage wine or high-end champagne without declaring them can trigger criminal penalties. Direct exports of European wines and champagnes priced above EUR 300 (USD 325) are prohibited under EU sanctions, while standard import routes face elevated Russian tariffs. The former government economist Oleg Vyugin was quoted as saying by The Moscow Times that due to complex transport routes and rising tariffs, “European wines in restaurants cost like an airplane wing,” adding that “if you want to drink good wine, you have to spend everything you earned over the last two months, or be an oligarch.”
Diageo will axe over 300 jobs – or more than a third of staff – at its North America headquarters in New York. The redundancy process will begin on 30 September and end on 30 September 2027. Diageo’s sales were down 2 percent organically in its financial year 2026 (ended June) over the previous year, with net sales in North America suffering an 8.4 percent decline.