United Kingdom | After Carlsberg put up a billboard across the street from Tennent’s Glasgow brewery, the Scottish brewer responded with a billboard of its own. 

United Kingdom | No one knows if there is a correlation, but there are now more churches than small pubs in the UK. Pubs, which employ fewer than ten people, were down to 23,000 in 2018, from 39,000 in 2001.

United Kingdom | Looks like the craft beer boom has stalled in the past year, with only eight breweries opening compared with 390 in 2017, according to a survey by the accounting firm UHY Hacker Young.

United Kingdom | Is this a joke or real? After 40 years of brandishing its lager as “Probably the best beer in the world”, Danish brewer Carlsberg has confessed that its famous slogan may not be true any longer. In a response to declining sales and negative comments from drinkers, Carlsberg has relaunched its eponymous beer with a new recipe and a more crafty approach to marketing.

Germany | More troubles ahead for big food and beverage brands. Germany’s largest grocery retailer, EDEKA, with a turnover in excess of USD 65 billion, is taking on the food and beverage bigwigs. After picking a fight with Kraft Heinz’s tomato sauce, PepsiCo’s multivitamin juice Punica was caught in the line of fire.

United Kingdom | And another one goes to – Lion. Australia’s number two brewer, Lion, which is owned by Japan’s Kirin, has followed up on last year’s purchase of London’s Fourpure brewery with the acquisition of Yorkshire’s craft brewer Magic Rock. The full takeover was announced on 29 March 2019. Financial details were not disclosed.

Germany | Wow. Unexpectedly, US craft brewer Stone has sold its Berlin brewery and taproom to Scottish craft brewer BrewDog. The transaction was announced on 5 April 2019.

Poland | Carlsberg Polska, the local unit of Danish brewer Carlsberg, hopes that 2019 will be another bumper year for brewers, with beer sales (by value) nudging up 2 percent to 3 percent. At 40 million hl, Poland is the European Union’s third-largest beer market, behind Germany and the United Kingdom (for the time being).

United Kingdom | BrewDog’s staff must share the founders’ profound sense of irony if they can be persuaded to wear t-shirts at work with slogans taken from negative reviews.

United Kingdom | Ask people if they have heard of AB-InBev and most likely you will draw a blank. This has irked AB-InBev for a while, which is why it has taken the step to boost the company’s profile by changing its name to Budweiser Brewing Group in the UK and Ireland.