Orlando, which has a portfolio of best-selling labels including the mainstream brand Jacob’s Creek, as well as Wyndham Estate, Poet’s Corner and Richmond Grove, has also made a AUD 29 million provision for restructuring as it tweaks its operation to cope with the downturn, media reports claim.

They have proven that they can and they tell us so: AB-InBev announced on 15 December 2009 that they have made an early payment of USD 3.7 billion to pay off acquisition-related debt, using proceeds from the recent sale of their central European breweries and theme parks.

With AB-InBev having seen volumes decline in western Europe to the order of 5.6 percent (January – September 2009), CEO Carlos Brito will have told his marshals to bring out the next cost reduction plan.

With the so-called “fighter brands” (like Adelskrone, Schlosspils, Silberkrone, van Raven) having been sold to the Oettinger Group as part of the Braunschweig brewery sale, market observers in Germany think that Carlsberg will next sell its regional brands such as Feldschlösschen, Moravia, Grenzquell and Lüneburger Pilsener in order to focus on its major brands Carlsberg, Holsten Pilsener, Astra, Duckstein and Lübz.

Gaymer is the second largest cider maker in the UK, having produced 1.5 million hl last year – almost double Magners’ current UK volumes. More than 80 percent of its business is through the off-trade channel, which accounts for two thirds of the UK cider trade, it was reported.

Waiting for Godot

ESTRAGON: Do you know the story of Belgium’s beer cafés? VLADIMIR: Stop it! ESTRAGON: They go quietly. More than 1,500 last year. VLADIMIR: STOP IT! ESTRAGON: Some stay and fight. But many retreat into the shadows. VLADIMIR: I remain in the dark. ESTRAGON: This is how it is. In western Europe, beer consumption is going down. Yet, in Germany they worry themselves sick over Feinstaub, in Britain they angst over Europe, and in Belgium, where the writing is on the wall for most village cafés, punters just shrug their shoulders and drink their beer elsewhere. VLADIMIR: Nothing can be done. ESTRAGON: Well, there is always the black economy and tax dodging. VLADIMIR: What do brewers do? ESTRAGON: They cry into their beer. And wait for Godot, err the taxman, to clamp down on errant publicans. Or, if they are clever, they rev up beer exports to the U.S.

Is this what you call an orderly transition? It took AB-InBev more than two weeks to name a successor to Mr Beyens. In early November 2009, the Belgian news magazine Trends published the confirmed rumour that at the end of this year Mr Beyens would leave the world’s number one brewer, which he joined in 1987 and where he has held various positions before being appointed General Manager of InBev Belgium in 1999.

According to a company press release, Mr Nasard joins from Procter & Gamble where, since 2006, he has been General Manager of the USD 1.2 billion Personal Care business for central and eastern Europe, the Middle-East and Africa, based in Switzerland. He was in charge of brand design, product and commercial innovation in five product categories and for 12 brands, including the toothpastes Oral-B and Crest and the face lotion Olay. Heineken proudly reports that Mr Nasard’s units have delivered double-digit top-line growth in the past three years.

It does not take much to figure out that Poles drink a lot of everything, especially if it contains “percent” (ABV).

"The weakness of our major operating currencies against the U.S. dollar has affected reported results, but we have continued to generate a strong underlying performance," Chief Executive Graham Mackay was reported as saying.