Beverage News

RSS

This spring, Heineken USA’s Dos Equis brand will leverage the success of its 2013 Dos de Mayo program by inviting consumers of legal drinking age to take a new path and discover more interesting and more meaningful celebrations leading up to the Cinco de Mayo holiday on May 5.

Phusion Projects, Chicago, introduced a new flavor to its Four Loko line of flavored malt beverages.

Lifeway Foods Inc., Morton Grove, Ill., released its preliminary sales results for the fourth quarter and full year that ended Dec. 31, 2013.

Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev), Leuven, Belgium, announced that it will re-acquire Oriental Brewery (OB), a leading brewer in South Korea, from New York-based Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. L.P. (KKR) and Hong Kong-based Affinity Equity Partners for $5.8 billion.

Taco Bell Corp., a subsidiary of Louisville, Ky.-based Yum! Brands Inc., announced that it has taken its PepsiCo partnership to the next level by introducing six new beverage offerings.

Silicon Valley Bank, a provider of commercial banking services to the innovation sector and the wine industry, released its “Annual State of the Wine Industry Report,” which forecasts growth of U.S. wine for 2014 but a decline in future years.

St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch, a subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev), announced that it will debut five ads during the Super Bowl XLVIII broadcast on Fox on Feb. 2. The company’s Bud Light and Budweiser brands will be featured in 3.5 minutes of game-time commercials.

PepsiCo, Purchase, N.Y., added two flavors to its Kickstart by Mountain Dew portfolio in order to target a new drinking occasion.

Restaurant Sciences LLC, a Newton, Mass.-based firm that tracks food and beverage sales throughout the North American foodservice industry, reported that single-malt Scotches grew 3.1 percent in U.S. dollar sales and 3.6 percent in case volume sales in the three months ending November 2013 versus the same three-month period in 2012.

Osaka, Japan-based Suntory Holdings Ltd. and Deerfield, Ill.-based Beam Inc. jointly announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Suntory will acquire all outstanding shares of Beam for $83.50 a share. This translates to a total consideration of approximately $16 billion, including the assumption of Beam’s outstanding net debt. The transaction consideration represents a 25 percent premium to Beam’s closing price of $66.97 on Jan. 10, 2014; a 24 percent premium to the volume-weighted average share price during the last three months; and a multiple of more than 20 times Beam’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization for the 12-month period that ended Sept. 30, 2013.