Welcome in, today is Friday, August fourteenth, and we begin with new 3 Tier Beverages data on hard cider, reported by Brewbound. Hard cider has kept posting year-over-year growth this year, even as the wider bev-alc market slowed through the second quarter. That is from new data out of 3 Tier Beverages, reported by Brewbound. The same account puts gains at both regional and national brands, with singles and six-packs named on the pack side. For buyers planning against a soft quarter, that reads as a pack-and-brand-tier signal rather than a category-wide one. Beyond that finding, the detail we have seen so far stops there. One qualifier on how the trade is taking it. Some read cider's gains less as a cider-specific revival than as part of a broader apple-flavor shift, pointing to off-premise data showing apple-flavored beer climbing while beer and malt declines steepen. On that framing, flavor, not category, is the thing actually growing. Also today, Champagne. Maison Pommery et Associés says it has secured its cash position after concluding negotiations with its financial partners. That comes from the house's own press release, issued in French and English. The same statement says the exclusivity period with Henkell International has ended without an agreement at this stage. So two things move at once. By the company's account the near-term financing question is settled, while ownership is not. The release does not name another counterparty, and it does not put a timetable on what comes next. An open sale process sitting alongside secured liquidity changes the shape of any eventual deal, because the funding pressure that usually sets the clock is, on this telling, off the table. We are working from the company's own statement here, not from an independent account of the talks. Separately, in UK retail. Majestic Wine will put four million pounds into its store estate this year and open at least four new sites, The Drinks Business reports, against continued pressure on the high street. Harpers puts the first of those on the map, a new store in Trowbridge, in Wiltshire, opening the investment round. Industry reaction leans toward reading this as a specialist-retail call rather than a high-street bet, with a recurring view that stores earn their keep on expert staff, range depth, services like tastings and glass hire, and trade custom from local hospitality. Some commentary also points to a longer runway than this year's figure implies, with talk of dozens of sites over several years, focused on affluent commuter towns. Either way, a specialist committing capital to physical space says something about where wine volume is expected to be sold. Staying in the UK trade. Importer-wholesaler New Generation Wines has acquired Bancroft Wines, according to the acquirer's own announcement, carried by Harpers. That is the substance of what we have seen so far. No terms, no word on how the two portfolios sit together, and nothing yet on supplier relationships or sales teams. New Generation is an importer-wholesaler, per that announcement, so the effect of this lands upstream, on brands looking for UK representation. Every tie-up of this kind takes one door out of an already narrow route to market, and the practical question for anyone carried by either house is whether their listings survive a combined book. Whether overlap gets rationalised or the merged portfolio simply runs wider is the open question, and the announcement does not answer it. Now, a few more headlines moving the trade today. Next Century Spirits has acquired brand assets from Grain and Barrel Spirits, including Chicken Cock Whiskey and two Circa 1856 sites in Kentucky, per the company's release. The Spirits Business asks whether rum's premium moment has finally arrived, citing high-quality expressions across price points drawing drinkers into the category. Thailand halts alcohol sales for two days this week, for Asalha Bucha Day and Buddhist Lent Day, per the Royal Thai Police, reported by The Drinks Business. And finally, following our earlier report on job cuts across Diageo's Scottish distilleries, GMB Scotland accuses the company of refusing to engage with workers, The Spirits Business reports.