Foster’s biggest brand, VB, is still the largest beer in Australia, by some margin, on both a volume and value basis (15.1 percent and 14.7 percent market share respectively).

The appointment comes as CCA and SABMiller prepare to open their new 500,000 hl Bluetongue brewery in New South Wales at a cost of up to AUD 200 million (EUR 140 million), which is expected to be running by late May or early June this year.

“We have had an initial contact with AB-InBev, at which we talked about possibilities,” Carlsberg’s spokesman Jens Bekke was quoted as saying. He added, however, that there are no concrete plans.

Constellation Brands has broken off talks to combine part of its Australian and British wine operations with Australian Vintage (AVL).

At an annual shareholders meeting, shareholders also elected all ten candidates proposed by Sapporo, the company said.

The move is aimed at putting pressure on Sapporo’s management to revamp its strategy for the group, which has struggled to remain competitive in Japan’s declining beer market. The hedge fund claims that the current board has failed to implement an effective strategy to address Sapporo’s poor profitability.

Currently, China has a per capita beer consumption figure of 32 litres. Brazilians drink 57 litres of beer per capita, Russians 81 litres and Indians 1 litre. To what extent this figures will rise in years to come depends to a large extent on the demographic change in these countries’ working-age populations.

Manufacturer Bayer says that the Berocca Performance tablet contains Vitamin B complex to help the body release energy from food; Vitamin C to support a healthy immune system; Magnesium, which combined with B vitamins helps release energy from food and keeps the nervous system and muscles working properly, plus Zinc.

While analysts had predicted the fall in wine earnings, many were surprised by the flat beer sales in the six months ended 31 December 2009. CUB, Foster’s domestic beer unit, recorded a 4.7 percent gain in sales revenue but this was tempered by a 1.1 percent decline in the company’s volume share of the Australian beer market, believed to be growing at between 1 and 3 percent overall.

Noted winemaker Brian Croser (ex Petaluma, Hardys etc) recently told a meeting of Australian agricultural economists that the current problems faced by the Australian wine industry can be traced directly to less than ten large corporations which collectively crush more than a million tonnes of grapes a year.