It’s probably one of the best kept secrets that a glass of orange juice has more calories than a glass of alcohol-free beer. In view of Europe’s expanding waistlines, The Brewers of Europe, a lobby group, announced on 26 March 2015 that its members would voluntarily list ingredients and nutrition information on their brands per 100 ml. This is in line with the legal requirements for all non-alcoholic drinks, including non-alcoholic beer.

Is it something in the water? Brits like eccentrics – think Boy George and David Bowie. By the same token they passionately dislike labels. This applies to the country’s recent crop of small brewers too.

It was an interesting admission made by SABMiller. At their recent Quarterly Seminar on Africa (9 March 2015), they acknowledged that they did a less effective job when they “overfocused” on women as the primary target group for their flavoured alcoholic beverages. The apple-flavoured beer mix Redd’s is a case in point.

Craft beer is coming to Germany. Slowly, but surely if the recent trade fair BrauKunst Live is anything to go by. The three-day event (6-8 March 2015) drew over 8.600 visitors, who did not mind paying EUR 20 for a day pass for the chance to taste a few of the several hundred beers available.

The world’s number one drinks group Diageo has given up on its plans to extend its supplier payment terms, media reported on 13 March 2015.

Foreign brewers have been hit hardest, but beverage manufacturers have been bruised too by Russia’s economic woes. On 2 March 2015 it was reported that both PepsiCo and Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling are closing one plant each in Russia, citing a plunge in the value of the Russian ruble and the country’s slide into recession.

If “vegan” is the new organic, are “alcohol-free bars” the new speakeasies? People’s relationship with alcohol has changed and the pub operators of the future will need to adapt their businesses to cater for it, said Catherine Salway, founder of the dry “gastro-bar” concept Redemption, at the Future Pub conference in London on 24 February 2015.

Krones AG, Neutraubling, Germany, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of beverage filling and packaging technology, has acquired 100 % of the shares in Schaefer Förderanlagen- und Maschinenbau GmbH, Unterföhring, Germany.

On 19 February 2015 Dutch brewer Heineken pumped EUR 131.5 million into its Belgian subsidiary Alken-Maes. That is the result of an internal liquidation of some inactive distribution companies, and is not the result of operational developments, Belgian media reported.

Because of the deafening outcry among craft beer lovers in the U.S. over AB-InBev’s recent purchases of U.S. craft brewers, AmBev’s purchase of Brazilian craft brewer Wäls barely registered on the takeover “excitetometer”.