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China bans shark fin consumption in luxury crackdown, as mainland slowdown affects Hong Kong luxury spending.Continue reading...

Beer consumption in North America and Europe may be falling, but folks in Africa and Latin America are apparently putting back a few more than they used to because the folks at the London-based SABMiller were singing the praises of those two regions to shareholders on Thursday.

Reuters reports that the brewer’s annual earnings actually went up 12 percent (to $5.6 billion in pre-tax profits) and that 70 percent of the SABMiller profits came from “fast-growing emerging markets.” The specific countries in the world beer market that helped boost SABMiller in those regions are Latin America’s Colombia and Peru as well as the African nations of Tanzania and Zambia.Continue reading...

British-based brewing company SABMiller has been avidly pursuing Foster's, including a bold move to snatch up Australian beer maker in August with a hostile takeover offer of $9.51 billion Australian ($9.68 billion US), but the Aussies didn’t go for it.

So the persistent SABMiller sweetened its proposal to A$9.9 billion, which was enough to finish things off and seal the deal for the Foster's board, according to Agence-France Presse.

Foster’s and its many beer brands can now be served up by company execs alongside SABMiller’s Grolsch, Pilsner Urquell, and Miller Genuine Draft.Continue reading...

A couple of British holiday campaigns from beer brands caught our attention this week.

Grolsch is keeping it classy this Christmas with a video greeting (above) featuring the "Swingtop Philharmonic Orchestra" playing Oh Christmas Tree with its swingtop bottles.

Serious-looking musicians blow on the bottles, tap them and use them to play other instruments. An impressive percussion instrument/Christmas tree made of the bottles is revealed in the final shot. The spot is inventive and feels authentic — unlike another, more cringe-worthy, holiday beerfest. 

Guinness invited British electro-folk musician James Yuill to play Jingle Bells on glasses of Guinness for its holiday campaign. He's shown turning a pub into a techno dance party with everyone merrily playing along on their pints. It's not so much the spot that irks, as what Guinness is doing with it. See what we mean after the jump.Continue reading...