Europe | The Brewers of Europe, an industry body, has added its name to a new EU-wide pledge to support the shift towards sustainable food systems. By signing up, Europe’s brewers pledged to pursue and build upon their six-year long commitment to label ingredients and energy on beers across Europe.

United Kingdom | In recent weeks, pubs and restaurants across England have had to close at short notice, as staff are forced to self-isolate after being alerted by the NHS test and trace app over coming into contact with someone with covid.

United Kingdom | Even before the pandemic struck, the London pub company Fuller’s was a very different business from the one founded in 1845. In 2019, it had sold its beer operations, including the London brewery in Chiswick, to Japan’s brewer Asahi for GBP 250 million (USD 330 million). In those days, the pubs proved far more profitable.

United Kingdom | A number of JD Wetherspoon staff have joined a campaign calling for double pay for those working on bank holidays. By early July 2021, more than 50,000 people had signed the petition, which is open to customers, staff, and members of the public.

United Kingdom | BrewDog is making headlines again, but not as designed. A winner of one of BrewDog’s “solid gold” beer cans has asked the advertising watchdog to investigate its claim that the prize is worth GBP 15 000 (USD 20 700), the BBC reported on its website on 1 July 2021.

Czech Republic | As the pandemic hampered tourism and the lockdown hit draught beer sales hard, Plzeňský Prazdroj (Pilsner Urquell) saw its 2020 profit decline 20 percent to CZK 3.8 billion (USD 180 million). Revenue dropped more than CZK 1 billion year-on-year to CZK 16 billion (USD 750 million).

Czech Republic | Well before the onslaught of the covid pandemic, beer was an integral part of the Czech national consciousness. After all, the country had come up with the names of Pilsner and Budweiser beers, regularly topped the international consumption charts, and even had a president write a one-act play about life in a brewery.

Poland | Craft brewers were caught between a rock and a hard place during the pandemic, when the Polish government put the country under two lockdowns, lasting from March to May 2020 and from October 2020 to May 2021. As hospitality venues were forced to shut, craft brewers could not pivot to e-commerce as they did elsewhere in Europe because of an ancient alcohol law from 1983, which does not mention internet sales (unheard of then). Despite their best lobbying efforts, the government insisted that this omission means e-commerce is illegal and refused to amend the law.

Russia | AB-InBev Efes, the Russia-based unit of AB-InBev, expects double-digit growth in its non-alcoholic beer sales in the next few years, Reuters reported on 16 June 2021.

Italy | The covid pandemic hit Italy’s economy earlier and more severely than other large eurozone economies. In 2020, Italy’s economy shrank 8.9 percent, the second-largest contraction after Spain, and it still has further to go than Germany and France to recover its pre-pandemic scale.