PepsiCo CFO Hugh Johnston says the firm is not interested in buying Mondelez for a premium price of $80bn due to integration risks and dubious value for his firm’s shareholders.
The Coca-Cola Company CEO Muhtar Kent says the company is not happy with its Q2 performance and blamed lower volume sales on global economic weaknesses and unusually poor weather.
Nestlé says its newly opened $238m soluble coffee factory in Vietnam will meet growing demand in the region, and will allow it to better adapt products to local preferences.
Mondelez International says its first training center for coffee farmers to promote sustainability and entrepreneurship, in Vietnam, will help it meet a 100% sustainable sourcing goal in Western Europe.
Edrington’s premium malt whisky The Macallan outstripped category growth by over 100%, in the past five years driven by strong sales in the US and the Asia, the company tells BeverageDaily.com.
Spirits manufacturer Beam Inc. has appointed Pryce Greenow as MD emerging markets, South America, to develop growth in promising regional markets for its 'Power Brands'.
Leading can maker Rexam has suffered a 10% market share loss in Russia in 2013, hit by the opening of a plant by Polish rival Can-Pack in March with a one billion can per year capacity.
Carlsberg tells BeverageDaily.com that Indian consumers expect ‘bang for buck’ with higher alcohol beers, as it launches the world’s first fruit-flavored strong beer tailored to the nation’s tastes, Tuborg Booster Strong.
Edrington says it sees ‘significant opportunities’ in the US for brands such as The Macallan and Brugal Extra Dry rum, as it takes over distribution of its brands from Remy Cointreau USA from 2014.
The EU is likely to backtrack rapidly on sanctions to stop cheap Chinese solar panel ‘dumping’ in the bloc, given alarms that possible tariffs on wine exports would hurt a ‘terminally stagnant’ French economy.
Bacardi is in danger of losing its ‘coveted position’ as the world’s bestselling rum to Philippines rum brand Tanduay, according to a new survey of spirits brands sales in 2012.
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Management target $45m cost savings to mAKE CASE FOR STANDALONE FUTURE
Trade union Unite has described the threat to 290 Britvic jobs across three UK sites as a ‘bitter blow’and aims to talk with management next week in a bid to save the firm’s historic Chelmsford factory.
DISPATCHES FROM THE 2013 INNOBEV GLOBAL BEVERAGES CONGRESS, WARSAW, POLAND
The rise of discount retailers – along German lines – will create huge challenges and opportunities in Poland’s RTD beverage market through to 2020, says the general manager of Coca-Cola Hellenic Polska.
DISPATCHES FROM THE 2013 ZENITH INTERNATIONAL UK SOFT DRINKS CONFERENCE
Innocent co-founder Richard Reed tells BeverageDaily.com that he anticipates the brand will probably attempt to crack Latin America using Coke’s marketing muscle, before launching in the US.
Mintel analyst Chris Wisson tells BeverageDaily.com that a 2012 slump in Scotch whisky exports to France is ‘quite surprising’ but insists the category’s global future remains bright.
Canadean has pointed to ‘alarming’ data showing that low calorie sodas are losing market share in Mexico, despite its dubious distinction of having the highest rate of childhood obesity worldwide.
BIG BEER HIT BY TAX HIKES, ADVERTISING & KIOSK SALES BANS
Coca-Cola Hellenic (CCH) insists its brands will continue to take market share in Russia from PepsiCo, as well as brewers hit by taxes and alcohol advertising and kiosk sales bans.
BUT BIG BRANDS HENNESSEY, JOHNNIE WALKER STRONG IN KEY MARKETS
Despite runaway spirits growth in Asia, 20% of global brands do not have a Chinese website, and mobile sites tend to lack investment, but Hennessey and Johnnie Walker are strong in key markets.
Heineken has signed a JV to produce and sell Heineken beers in Burma (Myanmar), and plans to build a $60m brewery there, following Carlsberg, Coke and Pepsi into the country.
Coca-Cola Amatil (CCA) MD Terry Davis has responded to an attack from the CEO of retail giant Coles, who claims that Coca-Cola costs Australian consumers too much at a 60% price premium over Asia.
Carlsberg CEO Jorgen Buhl Rasmussen says the firm is currently less concerned with building Asian margins than securing growth in a key region, particularly in markets such as China and India.
Danone has signed an agreement to buy a 50.1% controlling stake in Turkish bottled water player Sirma, and said that Turkey was a 'strategic country' for its waters division.
The director general of spiritsEUROPE, Paul Skehan, tells BeverageDaily.com that he expects the row over minimum unit pricing (MUP) for alcohol to reach the European Court of Justice (ECJ).
Capri-Sun says tells BeverageDaily.com it will not rule out selling a low-calorie version of the drink in its latest market – Mexico – and says such product launches depend on local consumer demands.
Swiss headquartered juice drinks brand Capri Sun says it is seeking to become a key player in the Mexican market after inking a licensing agreement with native beverage manufacturer Grupo Jumex.
GlaxoSmithKline will sell its “iconic brands” Lucozade and Ribena to a beverage giant – if the price is right – the company announced in its Q1 results yesterday.
AB InBev has agreed a settlement with the US Department of Justice, which sued to world's largest brewer earlier this year on competition grounds, to halt its proposed $20.1bn acquisition of the remaining stake in Grupo Modelo it does not already...
DISPATCHES FROM THE 2013 INNOBEV GLOBAL BEVERAGES CONGRESS, WARSAW, POLAND
GSK brand Lucozade is more likely to attract a possible private equity buyer than a multinational food and beverage trade player that prefers brands with greater global potential, according to a top M&A expert.
SAB Miller says it feels ‘quite positive’ about the possibility of Mexico opening-up as a beer market, with the nation’s competition authority poised to rule on the legality of exclusivity arrangements that the UK plc claims penalises it vis-a-vis rivals.
CEO ROBERT SANDS EXCITED AT SECURING MODELO 'CROWN JEWEL'
Constellation Brands plans to double of the capacity of its new Piedras Negras brewery in Mexico to 20m hectolitres within three years, and says its ‘transformational’ deal with AB InBev will make it the No.3 US brewer.
Officials in Indonesia have warned that several industries in the country, including the beverage industry, could be damaged if the proposed minimum wage increase is not delayed.
US FIRM ACCUSES CHINESE ARMY OF GLOBAL IP CYBER ATTACKS
Chinese authorities have accused Coca-Cola China of illegally mapping parts of Yunnan Province, while a high-profile US cyber-security company alleges that the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is behind at least 115 cyberattacks on US firms, and three foreign...
Beam Inc. insists to BeverageDaily.com that Teacher’s remains the bestselling Scotch Whiskey brand in India, despite press reports suggesting it has lost that position to Pernod Ricard’s 100 Pipers in the wake of Beam’s ongoing probe into potential local...
The owner of a Washington State winery says that Chinese wine consumers in the ‘middle ground’ are hungry for affordable US wines that assure them a quality that native products often lack.
Diageo will spend around £100m refocusing its global supply and procurement operations to reflect acquisitions in key emerging markets, but says the streamlining operation will probably mean job losses.
SAB Miller plans to invest $40m in a new 260,000 hectoliter brewery in Namibia, and says completion of the build by H2 2014 will allow it to make more key brands such as Carling Black Label available to consumers in the country.
Carlsberg says it is taking an ‘important step forward’ in China with a $466m offer for a controlling stake in Chongqing Brewery Company (CBC), in a move to double the number of native breweries it directly controls.
Alcohol-free malt beverages are big business in the Middle East and there were plenty of varieties on show at Gulfood last week. Symrise brewmaster and category development manager Wilhelm Resanovic caught up with FoodNavigator at the show, where the...
The Indian Competition Commission (CCI) has approved Diageo’s purchase of a 53.4% stake in United Spirits (USL), saying that the £1.28bn ($2.04bn) purchase may boost the nation’s premium spirits market and improve consumer choice without jeopardizing...
INDUSTRY VOICES: GUEST ARTICLE, HEAD OF AKTIEFOKUS CHINA, JACOB DE LICHTENBERG
After a quiet beginning to 2013, M&A activity is heating up in China’s beer market, as Carlsberg said on Monday it was considering upping its stake in Chongqing Brewery, intensifying the fight among global brewers for production assets there.
The Coca-Cola Company revealed yesterday that City of Atlanta regulatory authorities may seek monetary or other sanctions against it due to potential inaccuracies in wastewater reports submitted by its Atlanta syrup plant.
The Coca-Cola Company and PepsiCo both received dismal scores in a new Oxfam report that claims the world’s ‘Big 10’ food and beverage companies fail to protect workers, especially women.
Mintel analyst Chris Wisson tells Ben Bouckley how Anheuser Busch InBev (AB InBev) hit the bull's eye with its £62m Stella Artois Cidre brand in the UK, sucking beer drinkers into a category set for impressive value growth to 2017.
Mexican authorities are reportedly examining a $76m trade brokered by UBS in Coca-Cola FEMSA shares just hours before the firm announced its acquisition of rival bottler Grupo Yoli on January 17.
Carlsberg insists that analysts following the firm should take a long-term view of its market share in Russia, as it brushed off concerns over a slight erosion of its position there in the fourth quarter of 2012.
CONSTELLATION BRANDS APPEARS CLEAR WINNER UNDER REVISED DEAL TERMS
Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev) has agreed to sell a massive Grupo Modelo brewery to Constellation Brands as part of a $2.9bn transaction, to defuse a US legal fight over its takeover of the Mexican brewer.
The Coca-Cola Company insists it remains confident in the long-term resilience of its Chinese business, despite a 4% slump in volume sales during the last quarter of 2012.
Diageo is in an arguably stronger market position than multinational peer SAB Miller due to its core exposure to spirits rather than beer, according to one City analyst who covers the firm.
