Germany | Isn’t there a saying like “you only know what you are missing when it is no longer there”? For 35 years, the Munich photographer Volker Derlath has been a regular at the Oktoberfest. In the thick of things, camera at the ready, he would capture beer-fuelled moments, ranging from the comical to the violent and anguished. For Mr Derlath, the Oktoberfest is a modern bacchanal, where life, freed from civilising constraints, can be lived to the fullest.

United Kingdom | A lack of qualified drivers combined with tough visa requirements for EU drivers are disrupting the country’s supply chains.

Russia | What are we to make of Russia currently creating the world’s most ambitious and strictest supply chain track and trace system? Its digital system, known as Chestny Znak (trans. “honest sign”), is expected to be fully operational in 2024.

Europe | Diageo, LVMH and Davide Campari Milano ended July 2021 with their shares at record highs. While LVMH’s 53 percent growth in organic revenue in the first six months of this year was driven largely by the dominant fashion and leather goods division, the Moët Hennessy wine and spirits arm achieved a sales increase of 56 percent on the coronavirus-crippled 2020.

Germany | It is turning into a never-ending story. On 27 August 2021, Carlsberg will be dragged to court again over price fixing which occurred between 2006 and 2008.

Germany | All families quarrel. But none more viciously if a business is involved. The five children from the first and second marriage of Rudolf-August Oetker, grandson of the eponymous founder of a custard powder dynasty, and the three offspring from his third have been at each other’s throats for years.

United Kingdom | Drinks group Diageo has beaten expectations for full-year sales as it gears up for the reopening of hospitality venues across Europe. On 29 July 2021 it reported net sales of GBP 12.7 billion (USD 17.5 billion) in the year to the end of June, up 8.3 percent on the previous year, but still slightly below 2019 sales which stood at GBP 12.8 billion.

Belgium | Michel Doukeris, AB-InBev’s new CEO, will be pleased. The brewer drove second-quarter turnover to above pre-pandemic levels and sharply boosted profit as drinkers took advantage of eased restrictions in its major markets.

The Netherlands | Dutch Heineken said on 2 August 2021 that its first-half turnover grew by 14 percent to EUR 12 billion. But it is still trailing more than 10 percent behind the first half of 2019.

The Netherlands | How to knock a low margin business into better shape? During Heineken’s investor call on 2 August 2021, CEO Dolf van den Brink explained the recent transformation of its Brazilian business: one is a portfolio shift, the other is a route to market shift.