United Kingdom | Drinks group Diageo warned that growth in operating profits will slow in the six months to the end of December, as cash-strapped customers in Latin America and the Caribbean are drinking less and trading down. Immediately, its shares dropped 16 percent, wiping some GBP 15 billion (USD 19 billion) from its market capitalisation.

Europe | Global brewers AB-InBev and Carlsberg played down worries among some investors that demand for weight-loss drugs may lead to a sharp drop in beer consumption, Reuters reported on 2 November.

Europe | Have brewers’ beer price hikes led to waning demand for the high-margin suds as consumers cut back to ease pressure on their wallets?

Europe | Both Heineken and Carlsberg partly blamed their exit from Russia for their sales declines in the third quarter this year.

Denmark | Retaliating against the Kremlin’s confiscation of its Russian unit Baltika in July, Carlsberg said on 2 October that it has ended all licencing agreements for its brands in Russia.

Denmark | The integration of acquired craft breweries can prove challenging, especially for major, transnational brewers. At issue is not just where to hook them up inside the organisation. The bigger question is cultural: Is it best to let former independent microbreweries continue to do their own thing, or will they benefit from interaction with other craft brewers within the group?

Russia | The Moscow Brewing Company (MBC) received official approval to import and distribute Guinness stout, the Russian newspaper Kommersant reported on 21 September. MBC will supply Guinness on draught as well as in bottles and cans.

United Kingdom | When the famously wonky 19th century pub in Himley, Staffordshire, burned down in a fire on 5 August, less than two weeks after being sold by the pub company Marston’s to the property firm ATE Farms, the news made headlines across the world and caused a nationwide outcry.

Hungary | Heineken was fined approximately USD 41,000 in Hungary for breaking competition law through an exclusive supplier agreement with a venue in Budapest, media reported on 19 September.

Germany | The limited legalisation of recreational cannabis is a central project of Germany’s ruling coalition - and highly controversial. The cabinet of social democrats, liberals and greens approved the bill in August. It will allow adult consumers to grow their own plants and obtain cannabis from non-commercial, so-called cultivation associations. Possession and consumption within limits will then be exempt from punishment.