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Anheuser-Busch InBev

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This month, former beverage analyst Ian Shackleton takes a long, hard look at marketing spend in the digital world, a better-than-expected results season and the return of green shoots for local spirits.

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Craft beer has become the fastest-growing - and the most competitive - segment of the global beer market. With more than 1,700 craft breweries in the UK and over 5,200 in the US, the sector has a 12.3% market share of the total beer category and is starting to present a challenge to the growth of large breweries. One way mass beer producers have fought against the bubbling competition spilling over from craft brewers is to acquire them. Anheuser-Busch InBev, MillerCoors, Constellation Brands and Heineken - which together control 81% of the US market – have all expanded their portfolios through buying smaller craft beer brands.

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Earlier today, Anheuser-Busch InBev reported an increase in H1 net sales as it gained from last year's SABMiller acquisiton. Here, just-drinks takes a closer look at the company's performance by region in the first six months of the year.

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In February 2017, Molson Coors released its full-year results for 2016; the year in which the brewer took full control of the MillerCoors joint-venture in the US. While the transaction has skewed the numbers for 2016 - full details of which can be found here - the results from the four years prior provide an interesting guide to Molson Coors' longer-term performance.

Sanford Bernstein analyst Trevor Stirling is no stranger to the drinks industry. Having spent the late ‘90s as strategic planning director for Guinness Ireland, he then took on the role of packaged trade director at the company. He followed that by starting his own private-client wine merchant. In 2004, Stirling became an analyst at Bernstein, where he covers the major European brewing and spirits companies. Here, he talks to just-drinks about the role of an analyst, and how he sees the future of the drinks industry shaping up.

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Andy Thomas moved up to the CEO position at Craft Brew Alliance in 2014, following several years in the company's commercial operations. Previously, he spent 12 years at Heineken USA - the last two of which were as unit president. Thomas's experience in big brewing has proved useful at CBA, as the company moves to deepen its ties with major shareholder Anheuser-Busch InBev. In part one of this two-part interview, Thomas provides insight into the latest deal, which gives AB InBev a staggered, qualified offer option to acquire CBA.

Anheuser-Busch InBev has secured the purchase of another craft brewer, this time in Australia.

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Anheuser-Busch InBev has claimed its US safe-ride campaign is now the biggest of its kind by a brewer, after the company expanded the responsible drinking programme.

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A complaint against a television advert and Tweet for Anheuser-Busch InBev brand Bud Light has been thrown out by the UK's Advertising Standards Authority.

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Anheuser-Busch InBev is bringing Stella Artois back to the Super Bowl after a six year break.

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Anheuser-Busch InBev is to launch its non-alcoholic Budweiser, Prohibition Brew, in the UK.

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The UK arm of Anheuser-Busch InBev has unveiled plans to bring a US beer brand, created by global media group Vice, to the country later this month.

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The International Alliance for Responsible Drinking has released its fourth annual Producers’ Commitments progress report.

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Anheuser-Busch InBev's UK craft beer producer, Camden Town Brewery, has just had its first TV advert campaign air in the country.

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Anheuser-Busch InBev's US unit has lined up the first creative for its Bud Light brand, as part of the beer's NFL sponsorship. 

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Anheuser-Busch InBev's South African Breweries (SAB) unit has launched an entrepreneurship campaign to help create 10,000 jobs in South Africa by 2021. 

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Anheuser-Busch InBev's US unit has lined up a partnership between its Lime-A-Rita brand and the country's National Football League.

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The US division of Anheuser-Busch InBev has released details of its latest TV activation for Bud Light in the country.

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Anheuser-Busch InBev is to add to its traditional Bud Light tie-up with the National Football League in the US by including prize-winning codes on packaging that can only be unlocked through Snapchat.

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The Canadian arm of Anheuser-Busch InBev has entered Stella Artois into the meal-kit category through a tie-up with a food-delivery service in the country.

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Anheuser-Busch InBev is helping to develop a range of soft drinks made from the leftovers of the beer brewing process.

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Profits for The Beer Store, the Anheuser-Busch InBev and Molson Coors-owned retail chain in Ontario, fell by half last year amid changes in the Canadian province's monopoly laws.

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Anheuser-Busch InBev has launched a new digital campaign that claims to show the "commitment to quality and taste" in brewing Bud Light.

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Anheuser-Busch InBev is to create Russia's second-largest beer producer by combining its operations in the country with those of Turkey's Anadolu Efes.

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Anheuser-Busch InBev and Molson Coors have said they will fight a lawsuit from one the US's biggest craft brewers, which has accused the two brewers of colluding to obstruct cross-border trade with Canada's Ontario province.

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Anheuser-Busch InBev CEO Carlos Brito is backing Budweiser to beat Heineken and Guinness as the world’s biggest beer brands prepare for an African showdown.

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Anheuser-Busch InBev has started to feel the benefit of its acquisition of SABMiller as first-half sales and profits jumped despite continued pressure in Brazil and the US. 

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Ahead of the release on Thursday of Anheuser-Busch InBev's second-quarter 2017 results, here's a look at the events that shaped the three months to the end of June for the company.

For those people looking to the Red Planet as shining utopia away from all things earth, look away now.

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Ever wondered what fuels Anheuser-Busch InBev's acquisitional drive? Is it naked ambition? Faith? The good of mankind?