Every sector got a look-in last week, with the top stories on just-drinks coming from beer, soft drinks & water, spirits and wine.

First up, on Monday, were the brewers: The revamp of SABMiller's African JV with Castel looked pretty savvy to us; but, it also said a lot about the (un)likelihood of SABMiller taking full control of the alliance any time soon.

Staying with beer, and Diageo toasted the closure of its purchase of Ethiopia's Meta Abo brewer this week. We also used this news as a hook to run the first part of our exclusive interview with Diageo's main man in Africa, Nick Blazquez. Part two runs later this week.

Orange juice was the drink of choice for soft drinks headlines last week: As the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) suspended shipments of imported orange juice after Coca-Cola reported the presence of carbendazim in its supplies, our deputy editor and arch-conspiracy theorist, Chris Mercer, suggested that there may be more than public health at play here.

Spirits-wise, attention turned to India last week, where The UB Group's United Spirits division is reportedly set to pull the conglomerate out of a hole. Things look bleak for Vijay Mallya's UB Group: Could United Spirits, the world's largest spirits company (by volume – unclench, Diageo) come to the group's rescue?

Finally, all you wine folk will no doubt take cheer from a forecast last week that global wine consumption will increase faster over the next four years. Our advice? Get yourselves to Asia. Fast.

Until next time...

Olly Wehring
Managing Editor
Web: http://www.just-drinks.com
Email: editor@just-drinks.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/just_drinks