Stimulant or energy drinks continued to drive the category forward, led by Coca-Cola Enterprises’ Relentless brand, which saw revenues leap by 110% to £ 40 m as it extended into the energy with juice category and expanded distribution. Leading energy drink brand Red Bull added £ 12.5 m in new sales to reach £ 178 m, so Relentless still has some way to go to catch it up, but it has become its most credible rival. With sales up 4% to £ 228 m, the Lucozade range remained overall leader in the sub category.

“The past two years have seen exceptionally poor summer weather compounded by a deteriorating economy,” commented Zenith Chairman Richard Hall. “Consumer research shows that people are switching to other beverages rather than tap water and that environmental issues have yet to make a substantial impact. These are just some of the factors giving us confidence in a return to growth of around 5% a year from 2012”, he continued. “As to the environment, bottled water has the lowest carbon footprint of any beverage on retailer shelves, all bottles are 100% recyclable and recycling rates are rising rapidly. On World Water Day, it is worth noting that bottled water is one of the most efficient uses of water, its sources are naturally replenished and the total market represents under 0.01% of all fresh water use worldwide. When you look at other countries, UK consumption is lower than East Europe or Latin America and one third of the average in West Europe and North America. So we anticipate a return to growth by 2010, though a good summer could make all the difference this year,” he concluded.

Needless to add that Ms Bätzing is not a person Germany’s brewers and publicans would call a friend. What irks them particularly is that her initiatives to curb alcohol abuse are clubbed together under the heading “alcohol prevention scheme”. This is no mistake. According to the Bavarian Brewers’ Association, Ms Bätzing is out to curtail alcohol consumption tout court rather than just alcohol abuse.

A-B InBev is to move ahead with at least USD 7 billion in asset disposals and cut costs more quickly than expected as it tries to de-leverage its balance sheet, which carries USD 56.5 billion (EUR 45 billion) in debt.

For once, Africa is good news. Symrise has launched a series of beverages with African ingredients which have the novelty factor as well as health benefits on their side.

"The only difference between a caprice and a life-long passion is that the caprice lasts a little longer", Oscar Wilde has Lord Henry say to the dandy Dorian Gray. "In that case, let our friendship be a caprice", SABMiller, one of the world’s biggest brewers, might have answered Antonio Berardi, celebrated fashion designer of celebrities and wannabees.

Designed and presented by some of the industry’s most experienced educators, the two-week WBA Concise Course provides students with comprehensive training in brewing technical theory, the dynamics of brewery operations, and the science behind the creation of consistently excellent beer.

It was in 1974 that the family that controlled L’Oréal invited Nestlé to take an indirect holding in the firm. The Bettencourts feared that François Mitterrand, then presidential candidate for France’s Socialist Party, might otherwise nationalise the firm if he was elected.

Net profit for the full year was EUR 209 million, down from EUR 807 million in 2007. Sales rose 27 percent to EUR 14.3 billion, boosted by the company’s EUR 10.2 billion acquisition of Scottish & Newcastle in May, which made Heineken the largest brewer in Britain.

Gilde in Hannover has always been a regional brand whose fortunes have declined in sync with German beer consumption and InBev’s disdain for the lacklustre brand. At the end of the 1990s, Gilde sold more than 1 million hl. Today the volume of its namesake brand has declined to an estimated 250,000 hl. Unfortunately, the brewery has a capacity of a 1.8 million hl. Which means that it would have been heavily underutilised for years – had not InBev used the extra capacity to brew its other German brand Beck’s there plus 1.2 million hl of a white brand for the German discount supermarket chain Lidl.