We have been saying for ages that India is not a single market. It’s a cluster of 28 states and seven union territories, suffering from chronic over-regulation and under-governance. Although SABMiller, the country’s number two brewer, has done the only feasible thing and tackled the huge market on a state-by-state basis, it has nevertheless seen its market share drop to little above 20 percent, down from 35 percent in 2008, the high-brow newspaper The Times of India reported on 7 February 2011. SABMiller, with a portfolio of popular brands such as Foster’s, Royal Challenge Premium Lager and Haywards 5000, has struggled to hold on to its one-fifth share during the last quarter 2010, the paper said.

A report prepared by an independent panel, commissioned by the Australian & New Zealand Food Regulation Ministerial Council, recommends that all alcoholic beverages should carry labels warning pregnant women of the risks of drinking alcohol and also that labels should have details of the relevant energy contents. These recommendations to the Federal Government are amongst more than 60 presented by the Blewett panel. Brewer Lion Nathan, with a market share of 43 percent, promptly announced on 28 January 2011 that it would voluntarily print a warning on its labels to caution pregnant women against the dangers of alcohol to unborn babies. It also agreed to start using a generic warning message, which the labelling review has suggested might be “Alcohol can damage your health”, or “Drinking to excess is a danger to yourself and those around you”.

Spreading rumours is a wonderful thing. Especially if rumours contradict each other. Take Foster’s.

Mr Errington said the Foster’s Group would need to take a number of steps to reassure its investors that value could be restored.

On 11 January 2011, Lion Nathan announced its XXXX brewery will donate AUD 180,000 (EUR 131,000) worth of its beer products to hotels and clubs in flood-affected areas and staff would work with publicans to assess damage to beer systems.

After successfully fighting a hostile takeover bid from Lion Nathan in 2005, Mr Cooper said the company’s 129 shareholders are unlikely to be won over by international brewers. “Other brewers can’t justify spending too much on a company like ours, and with due diligence the amount they can reasonably offer isn’t enough to sway the vast majority of our shareholders,” he argued. “Any international players will know what happened in 2005 and that will hopefully deter them from trying to take us on again – it does take up a lot of management time and costs a lot of money to fight them off.”

Foster’s accompanied the Ashes with a series of ads that shows English men ringing two “ordinary” Aussie blokes Brad and Dan for advice on matters such as getting their girlfriends names tattooed.

Constellation’s transaction with CHAMP, which values the entire business at AUD 290 million, includes virtually all of Constellation’s Australian, UK and South African brands, wineries, facilities and vineyards, as well as its 50 percent stake in UK wholesaler Matthew Clark.

It’s an interesting strategy to launch an on-premise brand only. But it makes sense in view of the fact that the two major off-premise chains are competing with each other on price. Major brands get discounted so frequently that brewers have to focus on the on-premise (30 percent of total beer sales, says Foster’s beer unit CUB) if they want to save their bottom lines.

He joined the family-owned Adelaide Coopers brewery as a fourth generation member, having trained as a master brewer in England right after the second world war.