Should the merger ever materialise it would cement relations between Anheuser-Busch and InBev, particularly in Canada and the United States. According to reports in the local media, the deal would likely hasten a growing trend in Canada’s beer business: more emphasis on foreign brands at the expense of Canadian and Blue, which are in decline.

On 1 February 2007 InBev said that its Canada-based Labatt Breweries has entered into an agreement to acquire all outstanding shares of Lakeport Brewing Income Fund for CAD 201 million (USD 171 million).

Anheuser-Busch’s sales in 2006 rose mainly because of mainstream brands such as Bud Light and the addition of smaller brands such as Rolling Rock and imports.

Mexican brewer and bottler Coca-Cola Femsa said it plans to buy Latin American juice maker Jugos del Valle for USD 380 million in a joint venture with the Coca-Cola Company.

Total domestic wine consumption in Chile is more or less stagnant at 17 litres. Statistics shows that average per capita consumption fell over 70 percent from a high of 52 litres per person in 1982 to a low of only 13 litres in 1994. Beer consumption, on the other hand, has been substantially exceeding 27 litres per capita in recent years.

Irritated by Mexico’s political volatility, the Peruvian upstart softdrink company Ajegroup, whose super-size and super-budget brand Big Kola took Latin America by storm, has decided to divert the new brewery intended for Mexico to its hometown Huachipa in Peru.

Call this the first sign of a political thawing between Anheuser-Busch and the state-owned Czech brewer Budejovicky Budvar? Or are they both seeing sense – economic sense, that is? Whatever their reasons, both rivals have come to an agreement which focuses on the U.S. beer market. The terms of the deal, which went into effect on 5 January 2007, were not disclosed.

Just one weekend to install the upgrade BRAUMAT V5.3 S7.

New Glarus Brewing invests in a 120,000 hl brewery

Having fallen in love with micro beers, Deborah and Dan Carey established the New Glarus Brewing Company in the tiny village of New Glarus (2,000 inhabitants) in southern Wisconsin in 1993. This makes Deborah one of the first women in the U.S. to found and manage a brewery. As with other ‘professional’ couples, Deborah is responsible for the marketing of the beers, while Dan takes care of their production.

Desperately seeking the next Corona

Although it takes a big stretch of the imagination to see Colombia’s beer brand Aguila as the next Corona Extra, Miller Brewing has decided to import three Latin American beer brands from its parent company SABMiller as of January 2007 and expand the distribution of another beer from Poland.