just the Ten - Top Comment Pieces of 2010

With the end of the year looming, just-drinks is running a series of 'Top Tens of the Year' in the run-up to Christmas.

Here are the ten most read comment pieces on just-drinks in 2010.

10: Comment - A Word with Woodard - Rowing with Captain Morgan

It’s already been christened, in typical journalese, the 'Rum Wars'. It’s prompted angry exchanges in the Caribbean, questions on Capitol Hill and, most recently, a vitriolic attack by the world’s biggest drinks company on one of its rivals. So just what is going on with Diageo’s new Captain Morgan distillery? Richard Woodard picks apart Captain Morgan's current adventure.

9: Comment - Soft Drinks & Water - The Question of Ethics

Weather-beaten consumers are keen to jump back on board the ethical express, when it comes to soft drinks and water. Whilst companies operating in the sector are well-tuned to say what they'll do in the ethical arena, Annette Farr asks if they also mean what they say.

8: Comment - CBC - If You Ask Me ... - Brace, But Not Too Hard, for Double-Dip Recession

Last week, I used my column on our sister site just-food with the G20 Summit going on in the background to discuss whether the Western economies were finally out of recession.

7: Comment – The World Cup? It's not all that

As the end of the domestic football season draws near, many a football fan, wherever they may be, will start to broaden his or her support, and look to the World Cup in June.

6: Comment - Heineken wanted FEMSA Cerveza more

When it came to the crunch, it would appear that Heineken simply wanted FEMSA Cerveza more than SABMiller.

5: Comment - Pernod Ricard, Diageo playing a game of two halves

Pernod Ricard's share price has edged up after a set of resilient half-year results, but it all hangs on the next six months.

4: Comment - Beer - M&A: Time to Play?

M&A activity within the beer sector this year has been limited to just the one big transaction, in Mexico. Larry Nelson believes, however, that 2010 could have served as the calm before the storm, with the next wave of consolidation expected to break soon. Indeed, according to some, that wave could even be a tsunami, the size of which the world's brewers have never seen before.

3: Comment - CBC - If You Ask Me ... - Drinks Industry May See a Flood of Private Equity Interest

The news last week that SAIF Partners has agreed to buy Danone's 22.98% shareholding in China Huiyuan Juice Group is the latest example of private equity's interest in the beverage industry. The drinks industry, however, is lagging the food sector, where private-equity activity has been rampant this month.

2: Comment - Foster's takes the plunge

They said that it would be the birth of "Brand Australia" on the world wine market, but the gift of hindsight shows us that Foster's' acquisition of Southcorp in 2005 may have, instead, precipitated the beginning of a long, slow death.

1: Comment - The Losh Cause - Foreign Exchange Hell

It’s rare to find a topic in the wine world where everyone agrees. Still rarer when it’s a bad-news story, and where everyone is prepared to admit it. Chris Losh thinks he's found one, however.