Portugal’s Super Bock group opens a craft brewery in Lisbon

Portugal | It must be the first time in the industry that a country’s leading brewer opens a craft brewery – not to cash in on a growing trend, but to promote beer culture overall. This is what Super Bock Group hopes to achieve, after investing EUR 4 million (USD 4.2 million) in a former military power plant to establish Browers Beato in Lisbon.

Russia | Carlsberg has finalised a deal to sell its Russian assets, including Baltika Breweries, to two senior employees of the company, Reuters reported on 2 December. The day before, Russia’s President Putin had signed a decree which ended state control of the business. The deal, valued at RUB 34 billion (USD 322 million), comes after months of uncertainty following Moscow’s seizure of Baltika in July 2023.

Beer in Russia’s stadiums: Will it return in 2025?

Russia | Baltika Brewery has spoken out in favour of the return of beer to Russian football stadiums. Playing down any self-interest, Baltika said that this would not open up an additional sales channel for breweries, but only increase the number of spectators.

International sanctions and boycotts: do they work?

Russia | When did you last read about the “Yale List” of companies, which tracks western companies’ disengagement from Russia, following the invasion of Ukraine? It must have been a long while ago.

Ireland | Diageo will invest EUR 30 million (USD 32 million) in its Dublin brewery St James's Gate to keep up with the rising demand for its alcohol-free Guinness, which was launched in 2020. Media reported in October that sales of Guinness 0.0 on draught increased by almost 50 percent last year.

Ireland: Publicans do it themselves and brew their own beer

Ireland | Why has no one done this before? Around a dozen of prominent Dublin and Cork publicans invested EUR 1.8 million (USD 1.9 billion) in a new brewery that officially opened on 12 November.

Heineken Austria hikes prices twice in 2024

Austria | A looming fine by the cartel court, redundancies, outsourcing, and now the second price hike in a year: you cannot say that it is smooth sailing for Heineken’s Austrian subsidiary and beer market leader, Brau Union.

Heineken buys stake in Gillian Anderson’s G Spot drinks

United Kingdom | Heineken is pushing further into the Beyond Beer space. In early November it was reported that the Dutch brewer has acquired a minority stake in the UK-based functional drinks brand G Spot.

Germany | An organised, well-funded, international opposition to the alcohol industry is having no trouble getting its message across in German media too. The liberal national newspaper, Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, headlined on 3 November that drinking alcohol is a risk and it is best not to drink at all, accompanied by a photo of several glasses of beer.

Sin tax revenues decline as governments need to stuff budget holes

United Kingdom | For years, the trio of sin taxes – alcohol, cigarettes and fuel – have bolstered state budgets. At the same time, governments were fighting sin. As they all knew: sin taxes lead to lower consumption as people change their behaviour. Now that there is a shortage of sinners, governments need them. How ironic.