Germany | After its recent supply agreement with China’s tank and vessel manufacturer NDL, Esau & Hueber is met with all kinds of snide insinuations. BRAUWELT International spoke with Christoph Sedlaczek, Managing Director of Esau & Hueber.

Belgium | As the IPO of its unit Budweiser Asia has flushed in some USD 5 billion in cash, AB-InBev wasted no time and decided to reduce its debt load.

Belgium | Second time lucky? AB-InBev has priced the Initial Public Offering (IPO) of 1,262,350,000 shares of a minority stake of its Asia Pacific subsidiary, Budweiser Brewing Company APAC, at HKD 27 (USD 3.44) per share, media reported on 24 September 2019.

Scotland | Strike action has been suspended at Diageo’s operations after management and unions struck a pay deal. Workers had been determined to walk out at dozens of sites on 17 September 2019, following the unions’ rejection of a “final” pay hike offer of 2.8 percent on 16 September.

Germany | Krones is facing strong headwinds. Counter-measures, introduced in July this year, included a hiring freeze and cuts to material costs. But on 17 September 2019 Krones announced that there will be redundancies. Up to 400 jobs could be lost.

Germany | AB-InBev has bought a 20 percent stake in Munich craft brewer Crew Republic, which, at 9,000 hl in annual beer sales, is among Germany’s largest. But over the past few years it has seen its spare capital shrink while it has struggled to hike sales.   

Germany | Annoyed with Google’s misleading entries on waiting times for the brewery’s restaurant, the publican has sought to drag Google to court over this. On 27 August 2019, Google accepted an injunction granted to the publican to avoid further legal battles.

Germany | As of March 2020, several dozen Bavarian breweries will increase the deposit on beer crates from currently EUR 1.50 to EUR 6. This is meant to persuade tardy consumers to return crates more quickly rather than throw them away or store them in their basements.

Germany | Once the pride of German brewers, the country’s much-touted return-refill system for beer bottles and crates is becoming more and more unmanageable, as brewers flood the market with proprietary containers, thus adding to the SKU deluge.  

Austria | Where on earth is Murau? And how come it holds a festival on Global Beer? Murau, a small town of about 3,500 inhabitants, lies 160 km southeast of Salzburg. First mentioned in the late 13th century, Murau’s fame, historically, rested on logging and brewing.