Bulletin Business Briefs (e-edition asset)

Published 6:54 pm Thursday, February 1, 2024

German beer sales dropped 4.5% last year, resuming a long-term downward trend, official figures showed Thursday.

German-based breweries and distributors sold about 2.2 billion gallons of beer last year, the Federal Statistical Office said. That figure doesn’t include non-alcoholic beer and beer imported from outside the European Union.

In 2022, beer sales increased 2.7% thanks to a recovery in demand at home and in the EU following the end of COVID-19 restrictions. But demand in both markets was lower again in 2023.

Sales inside Germany — more than four-fifths of the total — dropped 4.2% to 1.8 billion gallons. Exports were down 5.9% overall. There was a relatively modest 2.6% drop in sales to other countries in the 27-nation EU, which bought 207 million gallons of German beer, while sales to other countries were down 9.6% at 170.8 million gallons.

A company that helped develop marketing campaigns for OxyContin and other opioids has agreed to a $350 million settlement with U.S. states over the toll of the powerful prescription painkillers.

Publicis Health, part of the Paris-based media conglomerate Publicis Groupe, agreed to pay the entire settlement in the next two months, with most of the money to be used to fight the overdose epidemic.

New York Attorney General Letitia James said Thursday that Publicis Health engaged in predatory and deceptive marketing strategies to help Purdue Pharma increase sales of its drugs.

It is the first ad agency with a major settlement over opioids in the United States.

The company says the settlement is not an admission of wrongdoing and notes that most of the work subject to the settlement was done by a company owned by Publicis that closed 10 years ago.

Peloton sank to its lowest price on record after it reported another loss and gave investors a lukewarm forecast as the connected exercise company continues to struggle following its pandemic hot streak.

Sales fell to $744 million in the second quarter, which company executives consider its most important quarter. That amounts to a 6% decline from a year ago and a whopping 34% fall from two years ago.

The company said it was ditching a co-branded experiment with the University of Michigan after it failed to entice the school’s boosters and alumni to buy the company’s premium Bike+ sporting the school’s logo and colors. The limited edition stationary bike is still listed on Peloton’s web site with a price tag of $2,795.

“What seemed like a good idea didn’t deliver,” Peloton CEO Barry McCarthy wrote in a letter to shareholders.