Foster’s is no more. Shareholders of Australia’s Foster’s Group unanimously voted on 29 April 2011 in support of splitting the firm’s beer and wine operations, a decision that marks an historic event. The move will create Treasury Wine Estates, with AUD 1.9 billion (USD 2.1 billion) in revenues, while the new Foster’s will remain Australia’s largest brewer with revenues of AUD 2.6 billion (USD 2.8 billion).

The royal wedding – arentyousickofit? But it ain’t over yet. Now the world has been put into the know that Foster’s has sent a bottle (number 2904) of Foster’s 2011 Crown Ambassador Reserve Lager as a wedding gift to Prince William and Kate Middleton … the number marks their marriage date (29 April).

Let this be a warning to all armchair strategists: the much discussed tie-up between AB-InBev and SABMiller could run into troubles in China if the latest deal is anything to go by. At the beginning of April 2011, Kingway Brewery announced that its controlling shareholder GDH Ltd has exercised its right to buy the 21.37 percent stake currently held by a Heineken joint venture.

For a few days in March 2011 Australia’s major brewer, Foster’s, stopped delivering its VB, Carlton Draught and Pure Blonde brands to Coles’ First Choice liquor stores and Woolworths’ Dan Murphy’s chain after learning that the two big retailers intended to sell them for AUD 28 per carton of 24 bottles. The usual wholesale price of a VB carton is AUD 33, and the usual retail price is AUD 38, it was reported.

The German discount retailer Aldi has been selling liquor in the state of Victoria for seven years, offering about 70 varieties of non-refrigerated beer, wine and ready-to-drink spirits, most of which are Aldi brand products. In March, it was reported, Aldi applied for the right to sell alcohol in its New South Wales (NSW) stores too, which is its latest attempt to disrupt the Woolworths and Coles grocery and liquor duopoly.

The Supreme Court of Victoria has ruled that a meeting of shareholders of Foster’s Group will take a vote on the proposed demerger of Foster’s beer and wine operations. The shareholders meeting will be held in Melbourne on Friday, 29 April 2011. Foster’s had said in February that they would proceed with the separation of their beer and wine operations into two separately-listed companies. It has finally been revealed that under the terms of the demerger, shareholders will receive one share in the wine unit, Treasury Wine Estates, for every three Foster’s shares.

On 9 March 2011, the Zhujiang Beer International Research Center was opened in a ceremony attended by leading figures from politics and academia at Zhujiang brewery, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China.

Fears of a nuclear catastrophe in Japan after last week’s earthquake and tsunami prompted a near 11 percent slide in the country’s main stock market on Tuesday 15 March 2011. Keeping your eyes glued on the performance of the Japanese stock market is almost obscene, given that an estimated 10,000 people lost their lives and millions of Japanese have more pressing worries these days.

Australia’s leading retailer Woolworths again faces the scrutiny of Australia’s competition custodians after it revealed in late February 2011 an AUD 340 million deal to buy the dominant direct wine merchant Cellarmasters.

Consolidation of the Chinese beer market is gathering pace. China Resources Enterprises, which is in a joint venture with SABMiller and also happens to be China’s major brewer, bought a 21.37 percent stake in Kingway Brewery on 9 March 2011 according to a Hong Kong stock exchange disclosure.