Diageo is suing its principal Missouri wines and spirits distributor Major Brands, alleging ‘unacceptable’ performance, but Major CEO Susan McCollum insists her firm has a long record of 'outstanding performance' with the drink's giant's...
PepsiCo has the jump on The Coca-Cola Company in the newly released Access to Nutrition Index (ATNI) that ranks 25 large food and beverage firms in terms of nutrition-related performance globally.
Tetra Pak has confirmed to BeverageDaily that it will close its current UK and Ireland commercial and distribution hub in Wales but plans to open a new site in the locale, with Chester the ‘preferred’ location.
Carlsberg UK has bent the bad taste envelope further still with an 'edgy' new online video that sees the drink’s fans phone their friends in the early hours and persuade them to visit a gambling den staffed by sinister characters or ‘actors’...
Unite the Union says the use of a legal loophole that it claims allows large multinationals such as Diageo to reduce tax payments on UK profits 'simply isn’t acceptable'.
Healthy Beverage Expo experts claim that 2013-2014 will see healthy alcoholic drinks emerge, including wines instilled with goji berries and ginseng, and lower calorie and more organic options.
British rock legends Iron Maiden have partnered UK brewery Robinsons to create a signature beer brand called Trooper, inspired by lead singer Bruce Dickinson’s fondness for real ales.
Bond credit rating business Moody’s has revised its outlook for the global beverage industry upwards, citing rising middle class demand in emerging markets for high-end wines and spirits from the likes of Diageo, Heineken and Bacardi.
Beam Inc. insists to BeverageDaily.com that Teacher’s remains the bestselling Scotch Whiskey brand in India, despite press reports suggesting it has lost that position to Pernod Ricard’s 100 Pipers in the wake of Beam’s ongoing probe into potential local...
Diageo’s Turkish president insists that the firm is co-operating with a government competition probe into its Mey Içki spirits business, and says he does not expect it had acted inappropriately.
Diageo will spend around £100m refocusing its global supply and procurement operations to reflect acquisitions in key emerging markets, but says the streamlining operation will probably mean job losses.
Despite a resource gulf separating 'big beer' from craft brands, the latter are often ahead in their innovative use of digital media, according to a new report, and while Heineken tops the tree, Foster’s is simply ‘feeble’.
Brown-Forman’s US flavored whiskey revolution continues, with Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Honey sales nearly doubling in the firm’s fiscal year to date, as the firm hails a ‘hot’ US bourbon category.
SAB Miller plans to invest $40m in a new 260,000 hectoliter brewery in Namibia, and says completion of the build by H2 2014 will allow it to make more key brands such as Carling Black Label available to consumers in the country.
Ball Packaging tells BeverageDaily.com that its new proprietary Dynamark printing technology will allow brand owners to tap the individualization ‘megatrend’ by personalizing cans, while cutting out the need for time-consuming and costly label changes...
Sensient Technologies claims that high sugar prices mean beverage brands are looking for alternative sweeteners, as it launches eight new flavors targeted at the beverage industry.
Carlsberg says it is taking an ‘important step forward’ in China with a $466m offer for a controlling stake in Chongqing Brewery Company (CBC), in a move to double the number of native breweries it directly controls.
As demand for natural food colours grows, suppliers and their customers are paying more attention to traceability and supply chain control. Paul Gander reports.
Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev) says that independent tests funded by CNN prove that Budweiser beer alcohol content complies with US law, despite results showing lower ABV levels than listed on labels.
Heineken has moved to clarify a misprinted term on its new Heineken Star Bottle packaging, launched across the US this month, admitting that it could confuse consumers regarding beer freshness.
The Indian Competition Commission (CCI) has approved Diageo’s purchase of a 53.4% stake in United Spirits (USL), saying that the £1.28bn ($2.04bn) purchase may boost the nation’s premium spirits market and improve consumer choice without jeopardizing...
INDUSTRY VOICES: GUEST ARTICLE, HEAD OF AKTIEFOKUS CHINA, JACOB DE LICHTENBERG
After a quiet beginning to 2013, M&A activity is heating up in China’s beer market, as Carlsberg said on Monday it was considering upping its stake in Chongqing Brewery, intensifying the fight among global brewers for production assets there.
miller coors jv partners will both 'vigorously' contest action
Molson Coors has launched legal action against SAB Miller in response to the UK company's move to terminate a licensing agreement granting the US-Canada brewer rights to license SAB products in the country, with the latter blaming low volume sales.
A US class action alleges that Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev) labels showing the alcohol content of brands such as Budweiser are ‘false in every instance’, with consumers deliberately overcharged for watered-down beer, claims the brewer fiercely denies.
SPIRITS GIANT PLANS $3.19M M&A SPEND TO BACK UK LAUNCH
Diageo is set to introduce a new sub-category within RTD cocktails in the UK, by launching its Parrot Bay frozen alcoholic drinks in April following ‘explosive’ US growth.
The US beverage industry is poised to introduce packaging that molds to the shape of your bag by 2020, according to industry analysts exploring seven key future trends.
Mintel analyst Chris Wisson tells Ben Bouckley how Anheuser Busch InBev (AB InBev) hit the bull's eye with its £62m Stella Artois Cidre brand in the UK, sucking beer drinkers into a category set for impressive value growth to 2017.
Whether it’s the latest starlet bouncing round in a boob tube, or that bad boy musician who swops his rap records for raki, there’s no doubting that celebrity endorsements are big business for the beverage industry
Mexican authorities are reportedly examining a $76m trade brokered by UBS in Coca-Cola FEMSA shares just hours before the firm announced its acquisition of rival bottler Grupo Yoli on January 17.
Coca-Cola Europe chair and new president of the European Beverages Association, Dominique Reiniche, will deliver the keynote address at this year’s 2013 Innobev Global Beverages Congress in Warsaw.
Campari America has agreed to pay $20m to Kobrand Corporation to secure the distribution rights to its recently acquired Appleton Rum brand portfolio in the US, and 'exploit the brand's potential in the key US market'.
Carlsberg insists that analysts following the firm should take a long-term view of its market share in Russia, as it brushed off concerns over a slight erosion of its position there in the fourth quarter of 2012.
Bud Light, Smirnoff malt beverages and Budweiser were the brands most widely consumed by by 1000+ underage US drinkers over a 30-day period, according to the authors of a new study who claim to be the first to assess nationwide data.
Diageo tells BeverageDaily.com it welcomes a US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recommendation that high-alcohol malt beverage brand Four Loko carry 'serving fact' information on some cans, but urges regulators to allow the wider alcoholic drinks...
CONSTELLATION BRANDS APPEARS CLEAR WINNER UNDER REVISED DEAL TERMS
Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev) has agreed to sell a massive Grupo Modelo brewery to Constellation Brands as part of a $2.9bn transaction, to defuse a US legal fight over its takeover of the Mexican brewer.
Ardagh Group says its new ‘ultra lightweight’ 275ml beer bottle produced for Anheuser Busch InBev brand Beck’s weighs 11% less than the original while retaining the same container strength.
Heineken said today it is reviewing its non-core European businesses that don’t focus fully on beer, and asking whether its ownership of such assets makes strategic sense.
China’s foodservice packaging market will become bigger than that of the US by 2020 at current annual growth rates, according to a report just issued by Smithers Pira.
Bacardi Bottling Corporation faces a fine of $192,000 after multiple OSHA citations for alleged safety violations, one of which led to a US young worker being crushed to death by a palletizer.
Diageo is in an arguably stronger market position than multinational peer SAB Miller due to its core exposure to spirits rather than beer, according to one City analyst who covers the firm.
The latest financial results by two of India’s spirits giants makes for fascinating reading and gives a real insight to casual observers as to the state of the drinks industry in the country.
The UK’s largest private brewer, Wells & Young’s, says that investing in new coding and marking technology from Domino has enabled it to significantly cut costs and increase productivity.
Heineken’s Finnish business Hartwall claims to have launched the EU’s first alcoholic beverage sweetened with stevia onto the nation’s market this month in the form of a ‘light long’ RTD.
Clinching global culture club membership by swigging Pepsi or Coke is not enough for soft drinks consumers in emerging markets, who are increasingly swayed by regional tastes, according to Euromonitor International.
Heineken has confirmed to BeverageDaily.com that it is working with JP Morgan as it begins a strategic review of its Finnish business, and PepsiCo licensee, Hartwall but refused to comment on rumors of a potential $788m sale.
With the US Department of Justice (DOJ) gunning to takedown AB InBev’s $20bn takeover of Grupo Modelo, the firm likely prefers peace talks in the Sheriff’s office to a High Noon-style shootout.
Carlsberg today formed a JV with a Burmese brewer to produce and market its brand portfolio, and told BeverageDaily.com the nation offered 'huge growth potential' in an under-penetrated beer category.
Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev) will fight a US Justice Department (DOJ) lawsuit to halt its $20bn Grupo Modelo takeover, but concedes it will not complete the deal on schedule by Q1 2013.
Crown predicted strong unit volumes in beverage and Bemis expects to push ahead after a year of re-organising the business, as both firms reported their Q4 and full year results.
Diageo CEO Paul Walsh says he was ‘somewhat disappointed’ by the breakdown of talks to acquire the Jose Cuervo tequila brand, but hints his firm may make an ‘organic entry’ into the category in 2013.