Mr Tobias joined Beck’s in 1995 as Key Account Manager when Beck’s was still privately owned. He rose through the ranks to become Business Unit President for InBev Germany, Switzerland and Austria in 2006. That he left the brewer only one year later shows that even he was unable to deliver the goods the new Brazilian-Belgian owners wanted: high profit margins.

Molson Coors and Cobra Beer have set up a joint venture to take control of the lager brand following the appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers, the accountant, as administrators at the end of May 2009.

At the end of May, German retailers were ordered to stop selling the beverage. An investigation in Germany had found traces of de-cocainised extract of coca leaf in Red Bull Cola.

According to the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) there are still over 57,000 pubs in the UK, but only a comparatively small number of them are freehouses, both owned and managed by the licensee. Most pubs in the UK are owned by a few groups, the so-called “pubcos” (pub companies).

SABMiller, the second biggest brewer by volume, showed the scars of weak consumer demand, higher commodity prices and a strong dollar as it posted reduced adjusted earnings per share of 137.5 U.S. cents for the year to end-March.

Dambisa Moyo, 40, completed a Doctorate in Economics at Oxford University and holds a Masters from Harvard University. She has a Bachelors degree in Chemistry and an MBA in Finance at the American University in Washington D.C. and worked at Goldman Sachs for eight years in the debt capital markets, hedge fund coverage and global macro-economics teams. Previously she worked at the World Bank in Washington D.C.

Already in October last year Brasseries Kronenbourg, Carlsberg’s subsidiary in France, announced a turnaround plan for the company built on a new brand strategy and a commercial strengthening. The objective is to make the company dedicated to satisfy the needs of customers and consumers and thereby improve the market share and the profitability. The plan includes re-launch of the main brands Kronenbourg and 1664.

It has been widely reported – all based on rumour – that Mr Kallmeyer, when he was still CEO of Germany’s number one brewery group Radeberger, offered too little for InBev Germany. Alas, people familiar with the matter say that it was the Oetker family itself that withdrew Mr Kallmeyer’s mandate at the very last moment.

The world’s oldest champagne labels, including Moët & Chandon, Krug, and Dom Pérignon, could become British-owned under a tentative plan for a EUR 12 billion bid by Diageo for the wine and spirits arm of LVMH, the French luxury goods company.

Special Publisher Hans Carl, Nuremberg, Germany, is pleased to announce its new peer reviewers for the BrewingScience - Monatsschrift für Brauwissenschaft.