Welcome in, today is Monday, October twenty-sixth, and we begin with the spirits trade putting its objection to India's reading of the UK pact in writing. Following our earlier report on India's probe into bulk Scotch imports, the dispute now has a formal complaint behind it. Reuters has seen a letter sent Friday to India's commerce minister by the International Spirits and Wines Association of India, whose members include Diageo and Pernod Ricard. It says excluding bulk Scotch concentrates from the reduced seventy-five percent duty conflicts with what India and the UK agreed, and warns the preferential treatment negotiated could effectively become unavailable for these imports. The mechanism is classification, not the tariff line. Per that reporting, inspectors have told companies concentrates must be declared under a code carrying the full one hundred fifty percent duty, which lands on the main route Scotch takes into Indian bottling lines. A British government spokesperson said it is working with India to resolve the issue. Industry reaction leans toward treating this as an unsettled classification question rather than a compliance failure, and as an early test of how the pact gets enforced. Also today, a rare warning from a major brewer on weight-loss drugs. Reuters reports it has seen a Heineken presentation sent to UK hospitality customers this month, telling pubs and bars to adapt to the boom in GLP-1 medicines or risk losing customers and revenue. Per that account, it says the drugs can reduce the desire to drink and pressure beer and cider sales through fullness and fewer serves, and that traditional multi-pint occasions could become harder to sustain. Its advice to venues is format-level: half-pints, low and no-alcohol, drinks paired with small plates. Heineken, which owns more than two thousand British pubs, told Reuters it sees some changes in consumption behaviour among users. The same reporting cites Circana tracking showing households with a user spent about seven percent less a month on alcohol after two years, and thirteen and a half percent less on beer. Operator reaction leans toward reading this as a serve-size question more than a demand forecast. Separately, Carlsberg India's full-year lines move in opposite directions. Revenue fell two point two percent to about eight thousand seven hundred crore rupees in the year to March, while profit rose twenty-two percent to five hundred thirty-four crore, according to filings accessed through Tofler and reported by NDTV Profit. Excise paid to governments fell about twelve percent, and sales promotion spending rose roughly forty-three percent. That is the record investors will read ahead of a listing that could raise up to seven hundred million dollars, cleared by SEBI on the first of October, and it sits in the same file as the Alwar brewery closure order we reported earlier this month. Reaction leans toward margin and mix rather than growth. Also in India, the Economic Times reports founder Paul John could keep a minority stake of ten to twenty percent in John Distilleries after US group Sazerac took control, and is likely to be asked to stay on in an advisory role. We have not seen that matched elsewhere. Per that account, citing people familiar with the matter, Sazerac's holding rose to sixty-five point seven percent in the year to March, and the business is valued at about four thousand five hundred crore rupees. The same reporting puts revenue including excise up fifteen percent to ten thousand eight hundred twenty crore, against net profit of eleven point six crore helped by a tax credit, so premium scale is not yet showing up in earnings. A recurring concern in the trade is that single-malt demand runs ahead of maturation capacity, which no change of control fixes quickly. Now, a few more headlines moving the trade today. Just Drinks reports Allied Blenders and Distillers has had a visit from Indian tax officials looking into bulk Scotch imports. Drinks International reports planned strikes by Unite members at Diageo's Cameronbridge distillery have been suspended, lifting a near-term supply risk. Brussels Signal reports documents in which AB InBev told the Russian-appointed administrator of its brewing business there that it has no plans to divest and is committed to long-term ownership; the company announced in April twenty twenty-two it would sell its fifty percent stake, and did not respond to the outlet's requests for comment. Also per Just Drinks, LVMH's partner in its Chinese vineyard joint venture has proposed to exit. Anora Group has named Quintessential Brands its exclusive UK spirits distributor, per Just Drinks and Harpers. And finally, Germany's federal cabinet has approved draft legislation taxing the sugar content of drinks sold in the country, Just Drinks reports, which opens the legislative process rather than ends it.