Whoever put out the estimate how much Heineken’s Finnish subsidiary Hartwall could fetch if sold seems highly optimistic. In early February 2013 the UK’s Sunday Times newspaper reported that Dutch brewer Heineken was seeking to sell Hartwall, the Finnish arm of the former Scottish & Newcastle brewing group it bought in 2008, for about GBP 500 million pounds (EUR 590 million).

In a brief news item, the UK's Sunday Times reported on 3 February 2013 that Heineken is rumoured to be looking to sell its Finnish subsidiary Hartwall for EUR 590 million (USD 790 million). Heineken acquired Hartwall as part of the Scottish & Newcastle transaction in 2008, which it conducted jointly with Carlsberg.

It's kind of funny that a beverage that is basically a simple beer mix and was already invented over 90 years ago by a Munich publican, is finally becoming an international phenomenon. Radlers or shandies have proven very popular in several central European markets like Hungary, Austria, Croatia and Slovakia, where they have captured between 3 and 6 percent of the beer market. In the Czech Republic Radlers have instilled some vigour into the languishing beer market category. Same in Poland, where Radlers were introduced last summer to offset a sluggish market.

Why the recent interest in small brewers? Is it because the big multinational brewers have realised that their brands are often more vibrant than their own mega-brands? Or because they have found out to their distress that they depend on the smaller guys to keep consumer interest in the beer category alive?

First the U.S., then Australia and now Sweden. As BRAUWELT International will argue in an upcoming report on “Craft Brewing in Europe”, micro brewers currently find themselves embroiled in a hot debate over what constitutes an authentic craft beer. With craft beer becoming more popular in several markets, we see more and more crafty-looking me-too launches by the big operators. However, all too often the multinational brewers feel compelled to disguise the origins of their craft beers, probably knowing all too well that ownership is a sore issue in the definition of craft beers.

Getting your timing right is everything in politics. So why did the issue of obesity dominate the UK’s media during the last week in January? Was it because the Public Health Minister, Anna Soubry, had persuaded eight new companies to sign up to the UK government’s Calorie Reduction Pledge, with leading soft drinks brands Lucozade and Ribena joining the likes of Britvic, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo in reducing the amount of sugar and calories in some of their products?

The days of seemingly endless growth in the central and eastern European beer markets are definitely over. Russia, Poland, the Ukraine are all in decline, albeit for different reasons. In Russia government interventions threw a spanner into brewers’ spokes, while in the Ukraine the sorry state of the economy helped dampen consumer spending. Poland, on the other hand, did not witness any of the above. It is the only country in the EU to have avoided a recession. Its economy is still growing, albeit at a slower rate – 2.1 percent in 2012 – than in previous years. But there is no doubt about it: Poland has become a highly mature beer market with per capita consumption standing at 94 litres in 2011.

It’s probably small consolation to Efes executive suite that its Ukrainian unit in 2012 managed to grow its beer sales volume by 14 percent over 2011, although beer production in this eastern European country as a whole declined 1.6 percent over 2011 to 30 million hl.

In 2012, German beer output is believed to have fallen 2 percent. That may not seem much given that sales spectacularly dropped 8 percent in April, 10 percent in September and 5 percent in December 2012 year-on-year. But if you bear in mind that beer consumption has declined for almost 20 years now at an annual rate of give or take 2 percent, then you will immediately understand how bad the situation really is.

Germany’s major brewer Radeberger suffered a defeat in court over its dodgy bottle deposit dealings with its Mexican import Corona Extra. On 19 December 2012 a Frankfurt court told Radeberger it had to pay the claimant, Deutsche Umwelthilfe (German Environmental Aid DUH), the cease-and-desist fee of EUR 243,43 (USD 323). As the fine is so small, Radeberger has no right to appeal against the ruling.