AB InBev has faced criticism in the US Senate over its takeover of SABMiller (The Financial Times). A Senate hearing yesterday heard that the Budweiser brewer had failed to address competition concerns in the US beer market. “These megamergers may have been good for shareholders but not so much for beer drinkers,” Senator Richard Blumenthal said. “This merger would clearly break the law. Whether a remedy can be fashioned is the million, or I should say billion-dollar question.” AB InBev CEO Carlos Brito insisted the deal was about gaining access to markets the group currently had no presence in, such as Africa and Asia. “This is about the rest of the world,” Brito said. “This transaction has nothing to do with the US.”
The Guardian reports that Tesco-owned garden centre chain Dobbies has booked a loss of £48m after writing down the value of its stores. It is the latest division of the Tesco empire to book losses following restaurant chain Giraffe, coffee shop Harris + Hoole and health supplement business NutriCentre all sliding into the red. Profits also fell 9% at the Dunnhumby loyalty card business, as reported by The Grocer last week.
The FT carries another report on British American Tobacco, Imperial Tobacco, Philip Morris International and Japan Tobacco International working together to fight the ban on branded cigarette packs, set to come into force next year. The cigarette giants will tomorrow mount a court challenge over UK government plans to introduce plain packaging. The paper said they will tell the High Court that the ban infringes property rights and will be ineffective in reducing smoking levels.
Finally, Warburtons with its band of Muppets has been chosen the best Christmas advert of 2015 by TV viewers (The Telegraph). Millward Brown, a brand research firm owned by Kantar Group, asked consumers to rate this year’s crop of Christmas adverts, with Warbutons offering coming out on top ahead of John Lewis and Sainsbury’s.
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