Indian summer especially on the Gangatic plain (the area around river Yamuna, covering most of north India) can be harsh and cruel. Temperatures of up to 44 degree Celsius are considered as normal in the months of April, May and June. Incidentally, these three months (also 1st quarter of Indian financial year) are the best period for beer producers in India. Along with North India, most of the country is in the grip of a severe heat wave during this period. With the mercury level rising, the cash registers of beer producers tick non-stop as the sales of chilled beer goes up substantially during this period. This three months period is the busiest period for beer producers accounting for about one-third of the annual sales of beer in the country.

Australia seems to be in the middle of a cider boom. Walk into any big-name liquor store and you’ll find shelves, once packed with bag-in-the-box wines, groaning under the weight of apple and pear cider bottles. One liquor store your correspondent visited on a recent trip to Australia claimed to stock 70 different ciders from all over the globe. Dozens of shiny brands from Australia and New Zealand, from Ireland and Sweden, were jostling for the consumers’ attention, alongside funky French farmhouse cidre and cloudy British scrumpy from the West Country.

It’s like a mass mutiny. First Stella, then Asahi and Corona, now Carlsberg. One by one, Foster’s is being deserted by foreign brand owners. The latest ones to leave the Foster’s stable are Carlsberg and Kronenbourg, both owned by the Danish Carlsberg Group.

India’s largest brewer, United Breweries Limited is likely to undergo a major restructuring in shareholding pattern. According to grapevine Heineken is likely to emerge as majority shareholder in the company. Heineken had acquired a 37.38 percent stake in United Breweries Limited as a result of its takeover of Scottish and Newcastle in 2008. Since then, Heineken has had two non-executive representatives on the board and a chief executive officer in UBL. The Amsterdam based global beer major had indicated at that time that India is a market with significant upside.

The move had been expected but it still came as a surprise when Mexican brewer Grupo Modelo, the parent of Corona Extra, abruptly terminated its contract with Foster’s as of 9 March 2012.

Did his resignation pre-empt his being kicked out? In late February 2012 Rob Murray, 49, informed the board of brewer-cum-dairy company Lion that he would like to move on to a different phase of his life and give up his CEO role in 2013. His resignation came only weeks after Lion reported a disastrous beating of its profits for the year to 30 September 2011.

Hello? Didn’t they do due diligence before they bought Foster’s? So why complain now? At two recent investor conferences in the U.S. (February 2012) SABMiller’s head of investor relations, Gary Leibowitz, accused former Foster’s CEO John Pollaers and his team of failing to properly implement beer sales and marketing fundamentals and said it’s time to go back to basics.

What a partner Heineken has picked in India. The larger-than-life entrepreneur Vijay Mallya is having troubles both at his Kingfisher Airlines and at his liquor company United Spirits. On 20 February 2012 The Times of India newspaper reported that the beleaguered Kingfisher Airlines’ operator Mallya plans not to shut down the private carrier which struggled to stay afloat after further large-scale flight disruptions and resignation of pilots.

Will Foster’s be trembling in their boots? Coca-Cola Amatil chief Terry Davis has warned former joint-venture partner SABMiller, the new owner of brewing major Foster’s, that he will be back in the Australian beer market in 2014. Speaking at the release of the Coca-Cola Amatil’s (CCA) annual results on 22 February 2012, Mr Davis said expansion into the alcoholic beverage sector remained a "core strategy for CCA".

When the supermarket chain Coles began selling two-litre bottles of house brand milk for AUD 2 (USD 2.12) in January last year, a discount of up to 33 percent that was instantly matched by larger rival Woolworths and German-owned discounter Aldi, Australia’s brewer-cum-dairy-company Lion knew they were in for a rough year.