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Treasury Wine Estates wrote down A$1.33 billion of US assets this week. DAOU was acquired for A$900 million in 2023. Two years later, it’s impaired. If you’re looking for a single piece of primary data that captures where US premium wine valuations have gone in the past 24 months, that’s it. The story has layers though – the underlying earnings came in above guidance, Penfolds China grew 34.7%, and the company immediately appointed external advisers to review all Americas options including potential asset sales. We published three pieces on it across the week, including a financial analysis piece on the Penfolds China figure that gets into the footnote TWE’s own document contains about how much of that growth was real consumer demand versus channel normalisation. Worth reading before you quote the 34.7% headline.
The other story I kept coming back to was India. Diageo had two separate regulatory actions from two different authorities in eight days. The FSSAI flavouring enforcement from the week before continued through the courts; the bottle marking seizure hit separately. Neither is catastrophic in isolation. Together they’re a useful reminder that the post-FTA India opportunity and the India regulatory risk are arriving at the same time.
Financial Results
- Treasury Wine Estates: A$1.33bn in US write-downs, DAOU and Frank Family impaired, external advisers reviewing all Americas options FY2026 EBITS came in at A$492.3 million – above guidance – but statutory net loss was A$1.08 billion after A$1.33 billion in non-cash impairments across the year. Americas EBITS fell 61% to A$90.2 million. Penfolds EBITS fell 15% to A$404.3 million, but Asia-Pacific grew. External advisers are now reviewing the full Americas portfolio including potential asset disposals. We covered the preliminary write-down announcement, the full results, and a financial analysis of the Penfolds China footnote – read the China piece here.
- Asahi Group Holdings H1 2026: revenue +7.7% reported, Core Operating Profit -8.5% on a constant currency basis The first clean results since the September 2025 cyberattack. Revenue of JPY1,464bn looked strong on a reported basis – the yen’s weakness against the euro and Australian dollar did most of the work. Strip out FX and Core Operating Profit fell 8.5%. Japan and East Asia Core OP fell 11.2%, still feeling the residual cyberattack impact. Asahi Super Dry grew 31% in markets outside Japan. East African Breweries acquisition completed 30 June.
- Celsius Holdings: President and CFO depart one day after missing Q2 revenue estimates by $54 million Tom Hick (President/COO) and Jarrod Langhans (CFO) both out. Revenue came in at $817.9 million against a $872 million estimate. The flagship Celsius brand fell 11.7%. Operating margin fell from 19.3% to 9.2%. The departures were announced less than 24 hours after the results – the framing as “planned leadership evolution” didn’t land that way given the timing.
M&A & Portfolio
- Nichols acquired VitHit for €75 million – the Vimto owner now holds 42% of the UK functional drinks category VitHit generated €26.5 million in revenue and €4.2 million in operating profit in 2025. The deal was funded entirely from Nichols’ cash on balance sheet and described as immediately earnings enhancing. Founder Gary Lavin steps down. The acquisition price implies a 17.9x EBIT multiple – a meaningful premium that reflects the market’s view of the functional drinks category’s structural growth.
- Halewood sold Crabbie’s Alcoholic Ginger Beer to Brookfield Drinks as part of a strategic focus on spirits Financial terms undisclosed. Halewood – whose portfolio includes Whitley Neill gin and Lambrini – cited a strategic decision to concentrate on spirits. Brookfield Drinks acquires an established brand in UK retail and on-trade, though its prior portfolio and ownership structure are not publicly available.
- Tilray to cease brewing at Terrapin Beer Co.’s Athens, Georgia facility – Project 420 restructuring confirmed Brewing ends 25 September. Redhook, Hop Valley, Revolver, and Atwater are also named in the SEC annual filing. Atwater was already sold back to its founder. Tilray’s FY2026 beverage gross margin fell from 39% to 36% on revenue that grew 6% to $254 million – more volume, lower margin. The closure is the production economics correction.
Distribution & Market Access
- RNDC Kentucky: Breakthru’s deal collapsed, KEG 1 River City signed the LOI Breakthru had signed an LOI for the Kentucky assets in May and walked away. KEG 1 River City – a subsidiary of K1 Management Services – stepped in, estimating the book adds roughly two million cases annually. Subject to bankruptcy court approval in the Southern District of Texas. Q4 2026 target close.
- WSWA SipSource Q2 2026: US wine and spirits volume declines narrowed to 6.5% for the third straight month Revenue decline also narrowed, to 5.5%. The on-premise outperformed retail. June was the first month in 2026 where all three major age demographics posted positive revenue growth simultaneously. WSWA’s own characterisation was “a market finding greater stability, not one that has turned a corner.”
- Asahi Beer USA installed a 20,000-bottle-per-hour line at Octopi in Wisconsin for Super Dry Bottles in market from mid-September 2026. The investment is deliberate counter-positioning: Asahi is putting capital into US super-premium bottled beer production at a moment when overall US beer volumes are falling. The Krones Varioline packer adds multi-format flexibility for contract production beyond Asahi’s own brands.
Regulatory
- India seized $1.6 million of Diageo products over bottle marking – a second separate regulatory action in eight days Different regulator, different issue from the FSSAI flavouring enforcement. Indian customs authorities acted over bottle marking non-compliance. Diageo then filed a court challenge over the rum ban on Friday. Two separate regulatory fronts open simultaneously.
- Diageo filed a court challenge over the India rum ban, adding a third legal front to the FSSAI and bottle marking disputes Separate from the Bombay High Court writ petition filed on 1 August over the FSSAI flavouring action. Three regulatory or legal matters running simultaneously against Diageo’s Indian business in August. None is individually catastrophic at Diageo’s scale. Together they illustrate the specific operating risk profile of the Indian market in the post-FTA period.
People & Strategy
- Remy Cointreau consolidated its full India portfolio under a single distribution partner for the first time Monika Alcobev – which previously handled Remy Martin and Cointreau – now holds exclusive distribution and marketing responsibility for the full portfolio: Louis XIII, The Botanist, Bruichladdich, Metaxa, Mount Gay, St-Remy. The consolidation is the first major market-level action under the RC Forward transformation plan. Ian McLernon, Group CMO, confirmed in the primary press release.
- James Watt’s Second Best venture is hunting for brewery acquisitions as the BrewDog buyback bid continues Watt separately bid to buy BrewDog back from Tilray in July – offering former Equity Punk investors their stake back at no cost if successful. The brewery acquisition search runs in parallel, as the alternative route to production if the BrewDog bid doesn’t land. The craft beer asset market is accessible in a way it hasn’t been in a decade – which is why he’s looking.
Launches Worth Noting
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Pernod Ricard · RTD
Absolut Vodka & Sprite launched as a packaged RTD in Great Britain, ahead of wider European rollout
Pernod Ricard and Coca-Cola packaged one of the most recognisable mixer combinations in drinks into a branded RTD – confirming the clearest expression so far of Pernod’s Crystal portfolio strategy. The logic is explicit: occupy a consumption ritual that already exists in the consumer’s memory rather than inventing a new one. Absolut & Ocean Spray followed a similar model in the US. Our market analysis piece on Pernod’s occasion pivot for clear spirits, published this week, maps what the strategy actually means commercially.
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Amante 1530 · Aperitif
Amante 1530 launched in the UK positioning itself directly against Aperol in the spritz occasion
The Italian bitter aperitif brand launched with a stated ambition to compete for the same 5-7pm occasion Aperol has built in the UK on-trade. The timing is notable given Aperol’s slowdown in some markets while the broader aperitif occasion continues to grow – there is clearly room for a challenger, but the question is always whether a new entrant can own the occasion or simply benefits from a growing occasion that Aperol still controls. Our aperitifs and spritz category insight maps where the occasion data actually sits.
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Bacardi · Tequila
Patrón expanded its ingredient transparency campaign as a commercial differentiator in a category facing pricing pressure
Bacardi’s Patrón extended its transparency campaign, making the production process and ingredient sourcing explicit marketing content. In a tequila category where super-premium pricing is under pressure – WSWA SipSource showed the super-premium tier contracting even as overall RTD-driven agave consumption grows – Patrón’s bet is that transparency around quality justifies the price premium better than brand heritage alone. Whether that holds as price sensitivity increases is the commercial question the campaign is designed to answer.
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Pernod Ricard · RTD
Malibu & Dole RTDs moved into US national rollout – rum and pineapple as a packaged occasion
Alongside the Absolut & Sprite launch, Malibu’s partnership with Dole for packaged rum and pineapple RTDs progressed to national US rollout. The same strategic logic applies – rum and pineapple is a pre-existing consumption ritual rather than a manufactured new flavour. Malibu has brand recognition across the consumer base that would reach for this drink. The question for both Absolut and Malibu is whether packaged co-branded RTDs convert at the rate their distribution suggests they should.
On the Radar
- IWSR: hard tea could scale better than hard seltzer globally IWSR released analysis suggesting hard tea has stronger structural scale potential globally than hard seltzer, citing cultural familiarity with tea across Asian and European markets that seltzer lacks. Monster’s Nasty Beast hard tea is the most visible current bet on this thesis – though Monster’s Q2 alcohol results (alcohol segment down 15.2%) complicate the optimism somewhat. The format may have potential. Execution at the brand level is a different question.
- Margaritas drove a 200% surge in tequila cocktail off-trade sales in the UK UK off-trade data showed tequila cocktail sales surging 200% driven by the margarita occasion – consistent with what the aperitif occasion did for Aperol and what RTDs have done for spirits more broadly. The margarita in the UK is still early stage relative to the US, which makes it either a growth opportunity or a timing risk depending on how durable the consumer interest proves beyond a trend peak.
- Monster Beverage’s alcohol segment fell 15.2% in Q2 2026 while energy drinks hit a record $2.54 billion The divergence between Monster’s energy drink growth and its alcohol decline is the most specific available data point on the substitution dynamic between functional beverages and alcohol. We covered the commercial implications in full in our market analysis piece, published this week – the short version is that brand equity built in energy drinks doesn’t automatically transfer to alcohol at the point of purchase.
- Burgundy overtook Bordeaux as the most traded wine region on the secondary market Liv-ex data confirmed Burgundy now accounts for more secondary market trading volume than Bordeaux – a shift that would have seemed improbable a decade ago when Bordeaux dominated the fine wine trade. The flip reflects both the sustained strength of blue-chip Burgundy (DRC, Rousseau, Leroy) and Bordeaux’s en primeur pricing challenges. For the fine wine market, it signals a maturation of the buyer base toward quality over familiarity.