Global Consolidation of Breweries Continues

Heineken is buying Mexico's Femsa for $5.5 billion in stock. I believe Femsa is the second largest brewing conglomerate in Mexico, after Groupo Modelo. This means that Heineken now also controls Dos Equis, Sol and Tecate in the U.S. as well as Xingu in the U.S. and Brazil. This comes on the heels of Heineken's purchase of Newcastle last year, and is further representative of continued consolidation and struggle between the three largest conglomerates, Anheuser-Busch InBev SA, Heineken and SAB-Miller for market share in the developing markets of Central and South America.

"In the context of the reconfiguration of the global brewing landscape, scale and geographic diversification are more important than ever," said Femsa CEO Jose Antonio Fernandez Carbajal.

Two Articles

Two interesting articles I came across recently.

1) From Reuters: StatoilHydro Fights Lithuanian Alcohol Ban. Norwegian gasoline company fighting Lithuanian ban on night sales of alcohol at gas stations. Lithuania (like most of the former Soviet bloc countries) has serious problems with alcoholism. We're talking 14 liters pure ethanol per capita annually (the U.S. is closer to 9 liters). Banning night sales at gas stations has apparently dropped alcohol related accidents by 45%. But the company, majority owned by the Norwegian government, is pressing to have the ban revoked, alleging that not all of its competitors are complying (probably true). But still kind of funny, because Norway has some of the most restrictive alcohol laws in the world. You can't even buy alcohol at gas stations in Norway.

2) From the BBC: Alcohol Link to one in 25 Deaths. That's worldwide. It's 1 in 10 in Europe, and 1 in 7 in Russia...