Just the round-up – The week in drinks

The top ten most visited stories on just-drinks this week:

Sabeco

VIETNAM: Sabeco seeks foreign brewers to take stake

Saigon Beer Alcohol Beverage Corp (Sabeco) is looking for a foreign brewer to invest in the Vietnamese company, according to local reports.

Kobrand

US: Kobrand separates spirits and wine divisions

Kobrand Corp. has split its wine and spirits portfolio into two separate sales and marketing companies.

Future Brands

US: Future Brands CEO resigns

FutureBrands has announced changes to its management team, involving the departure of its CEO. The board of the distribution company for Beam Global Spirits & Wine and Absolut Spirits, said on Friday (11 January), that its CEO, Steve Bellini, will leave the company at the end of next month to "pursue personal interests".

Spirits good, beer bad in 2008

UK: Brewers to struggle, spirits look high for 2008 - analyst

The future bodes well for spirits companies, according to an analyst, although brewers will find 2008 tough going as commodity prices remain high.

Pepsi-Cola

US: Pepsi and Amazon in music download promo

Pepsi-Cola North America is joining forces with online retailer Amazon.com in a major promotion which allows consumers buying special packs of Pepsi brands to download music from Amazon MP3 for free.

C&C Group

UK: C&C sales slip in Q3, Christmas not merry either

C&C has posted yet another slide in sales, this time for its third quarter.

Diageo

UK: Diageo admits voting for own Scotch brands in Drammies

Diageo has been forced to apologise to the organisers of a Scotch whisky awards, for voting repeatedly for its own brands.

Starbucks and PepsiCo

US: Starbucks gets Naked

Naked Juice Co. has signed a multi-year distribution agreement with the Starbucks Coffee Co. to serve four of its Naked Juice drinks in 7,000 of its coffee houses across the US.

SABMiller

UK: SABMiller sees sluggish Q3 amidst challenges

SABMiller has seen its third quarter sales slow, reporting a slip in South African beer volumes as well as sluggish volumes in markets such as Latin America, Europe and China.

S&N, Carlsberg and Heineken

UPDATE: S&N finally joins Carlsberg, Heineken at table

Scottish & Newcastle has demanded that Carlsberg agree to the publication of confidential data on their joint brewing venture "as a condition of recommendation".