“The world is a village and we are all connected.” This saying comes to mind on hearing that on 29 April 2015 AB-InBev’s shareholders approved Olivier Goudet, 51, as Chairman, bringing an end to the leadership of Kees Storm whose term on the board expired. Mr Goudet, a Frenchman who has been an AB-InBev independent board member since 2011, will serve for four years.

Playing the patriotic card or what? Dutch brewer Heineken will start producing the traditional bread-based drink kvass at four of its Russian breweries as the country’s beer market battles a steep downturn, the brewer said on 23 April 2015.

Already at the end of last year Carlsberg announced that it would construct a new brewery in Trondheim on the site of the existing Ringnes E.C. Dahls brewery for DKK 110 million kronor (about EUR 15 million), but only on 27 April 2015 it was revealed that this project will be a collaboration between Carlsberg and Brooklyn Brewery from New York.

Heineken, the world’s number three brewer, on 22 April 2015 reported stronger than expected revenue growth in the first quarter, boosted by sales of Mexican lagers and drinking over the New Year in Vietnam.

As if to counter the analysts’ currently divided opinion whether to hold on to SABMiller’s shares or sell them, the world’s second-biggest brewer, reported on 16 April 2015 that lager volumes were up 2 percent on an organic basis in the three months ended 31 March 2015. Soft drinks volume grew 8 percent in the quarter. This increase came on the back of growing consumption in Africa, Latin America and a rebound in China.

With all the hype around Millennials and GenerationYs, brewers can be forgiven for having left a consumer cohort underserved: women. After all, who knows what women want? While handbag and shoe makers always seem to know the answer, brewers in the past mostly failed to get their offerings right: Or does anyone remember Animee (Molson Coors), let alone Eve (Carlsberg)?

Broaching the Swedish retail bottleneck

Holy cow! Did the earth shake and no one noticed? In Sweden a microbrewer is nominated for the award “entrepreneur of the year” by the independent conservative newspaper Svenska Dagbladet. In other parts of the world this accolade would hardly raise an eyebrow because the most talked-up entrepreneurs in recent years have either been craft brewers or internet whiz kids. But in Sweden the nomination of Björn Falkeström, who set up the Oppigårds Brewery in 2003, indicates that something close to a cultural revolution has taken place.

Not bad for a brewer that was only founded in 2007 and started out with two employees and one dog. Scottish brewer BrewDog has posted profits and revenue up over 60 percent in 2014.

Heineken has shaken up its executive ranks in a bid to boost flagging sales. On 31 March 2015 the Dutch brewer said that a number of its executives, including the company's chief strategy officer, would leave the group as it re-organises its business into four geographic regions.

The beer duty escalator, a system whereby beer tax was increased above inflation year on year, was the bane of UK brewers. However, after much lobbying from the brewers, the UK government saw sense and on 18 March 2015 the British Chancellor George Osborne announced that beer taxes will be cut for the third year running.