We don't normally wade into the nitty-gritty of macroeconomic news in our weekly email to you, but it would seem churlish not to flag up one of the biggest financial stories of the year, which returned to the headlines last week. Greece's battered economy - and the potential repercussions of this on national economies across Europe - highlights the precarious financial situation we continue to find ourselves in, almost three years after Lehman went pop.

Last week, just-drinks covered the state of play for drinks companies in Greece. While cost cutting is inevitable, we were surprised to learn that Heineken, its eyes fixed firmly on the silver lining, believes that it can improve its market share in the country during the crisis. The size of the market, however, is the bigger problem.

Meanwhile, should Greece default on its debt, then pressure is likely to intensify on the debt-ridden economies elsewhere in the eurozone, notably Ireland, Spain, Portugal and Italy. Then, when one considers how interwoven the European banking system is, it seems likely that France, Germany and the UK would also come under greater pressure. I don't think you need an economics expert to understand the potential effect on consumer confidence from all of this.

Okay, so I'm painting a dark picture here, but it's not as unrealistic as I would like it to be.

Elsewhere on just-drinks last week, we looked at what some observers thought were the makings of a feud amongst the multinational brewers in the UK, the rising amount of M&A activity in Eastern Europe's soft drinks and water sector, and an African itch that is starting to get under SABMiller's skin.

This week, and staying with beer, we're looking to run our next big interview, this time with the chief marketing officer of Anheuser-Busch InBev, Chris Burggraeve, who I met with in London on Friday. As last month's interview with Heineken's CEO showed, biding my time for a pow-wow with a senior exec at A-B InBev was worth the wait.

Until next time...

Olly Wehring
Managing Editor
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