Risks of doing biz in Russia resurfaced over the weekend. The country's government took control of both Carlsberg and Danone's Russian subsidiaries, per presidential decree signed into law on Sunday. It places Carlsberg's Baltika Breweries under "temporary management" of Russian administration, tho Carlsberg hasn't received "any official information from the Russian Authorities regarding the presidential decree or the consequences" for Baltika, per company statement.

Once the largest publicly traded cannabis co, drawing multi-billion-dollar investment from Constellation, Canopy Growth is now threatened with being delisted from Nasdaq as co scrambles to right the ship. Co received notice from Nasdaq Stock Market on July 11 that it's currently not in compliance with Nasdaq's "minimum listing requirements relating to the closing bid price being below $1.00 per Common Share for 30 consecutive business days," co announced late last week. Canopy quickly put together a "series of agreements" with top shareholders and certain lenders that are expected to reduce debt by $437 mil Canadian dollars (~$330 mil USD) over the next 2 qtrs and save C$20-30 mil ($15-23 mil USD) in interest expenses, co shared.

Another storied brewery that changed ownership multiple times is lookin' to save Anchor Brewing. RI's Narragansett Brewing started petition on Change.org dubbed "Stand Together to Save Anchor Brewing Company!," as Forbes reported over the weekend. Stated goal of the petition is "to create a community of like-minded craft brewers and consumers interested in the preservation of Anchor Brewing Company." Admittedly, "we do not know where this conversation will take us," Narragansett acknowledges, "but we should have the conversation nonetheless." And prexy and co-owner Mark Hellendrung has "a lot of wild ideas," he told Forbes, stating that "if there was an opportunity to buy it with a group of people who are as passionate about Anchor as I am, I'd be open to that." Recall, since it was revived by current ownership group/leadership team, Narragansett became a sizable regional craft brewer, shipping over 100K bbls in 2022.

It's been a coupla quiet yrs since Ohio and Michigan pulled out a previously unused, 20-yr-old fed law to take civil action against cos shipping alc bevs into those states. But late last wk, Tennessee joined the fray. State AG filed suit in fed ct against 6 separate shippers, seeking injunction to block cos from shipments into TN.

In cases arguing state alc bev laws unconstitutionally discriminate against out-of-state parties, fed cts must weigh evidence that the law protects public health and safety against facts purporting protectionist effects. But in suit attempting to strike down Ohio's prohibition against wine shipments from out-of-state retailers, the district ct didn't do that, a 3-judge panel at the 6th Circuit Ct of Appeals ruled on Friday. Instead, the lower ct took the easy way out. It merely looked at another 6th Circuit ruling, upholding a similar law in MI, and decided that the OH law could stand, too. Not so, these appellate judges wrote, highlighting the higher bar states must hit to support alc bev laws. Each state must present its own set of facts from experts and witnesses that demonstrate the public health & safety effects of those laws, the judges reminded.

Among the many threads to unravel from Coca-Cola's creation of Red Tree alc subsidiary, its reveal leads to 3 key questions in view of Consumer Edge's Brett Cooper. Namely: 1) what is the future for KO's alc bev partners in the US, particularly "those that aren't bringing a trademark" to the relationship? 2) If Coke "repatriated" the alc bev brands, could they do a better job managing them? And 3) will Coke's bottlers "move to become alcohol distributors - even if Coke has no intention to be a distributor itself?"

Coca-Cola quietly set up federally permitted alc subsidiary dubbed Red Tree Beverages late last year in effort to firewall that biz from co's non-alc operations, Beverage Digest reported today. Red Tree received a wholesaler basic permit for an Atlanta office address from regulator TTB, even as Coke insists it has no intention to set up its own distribution arm. Instead, co seeks to participate more fully in mktg and strategy for its alc RTDs using Coke trademarks, it sez, which will continue to be produced by 3rd-party partners like Molson Coors and Jack Daniels .

Following in footsteps of SFO airport in SF 4 years earlier, Los Angeles International Airport banned sale of single-use plastic bottles as of June 30. Rule applying to restaurants, cafes and vending machines came coupla years after LA Board of Airport Commissioners voted to phase out single-use plastic bottles at LAX as part of broader zero-waste program . . . Coca-Cola and 8 of its global bottling partners have launched sustainability-oriented VC fund that will funnel $137.7 mil toward 5 key areas: packaging, heating & cooling, facility decarbonization, distribution and supply chain. It will be managed by Greycroft and operate under moniker Greycroft Coca-Cola System Sustainability Fund. The participating bottlers, who rep half of KO's global volume, are Arca Continental, Coca-Cola United, Coca-Cola Consolidated, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners, Coca-Cola Femsa, Coca-Cola HBC, Reyes Coca-Cola Bottling and Swire Coca-Cola.