Welcome in, today is Tuesday, October twenty-seventh, and we begin with BevNET on a settlement that moves the RNDC wind-down forward. Republic National Distributing Company has settled with its unsecured creditors, and that settlement clears the procedural path to its Chapter Eleven liquidation. That is BevNET, reporting Monday. The same account says a judge has also signed off on sales of RNDC's businesses in Alaska, Kentucky and Michigan. Taken together, those two steps set the pace at which supplier brands across that three-state footprint get reassigned to new houses, which is the near-term planning question for anyone holding distribution there. Industry reaction fixes less on the settlement itself than on the roughly forty-seven million dollars tied to employee deferred compensation that BevNET reports is being redirected to general unsecured creditors. Some in the trade frame that redirection as the detail suppliers and former staff should watch. And a recurring caution is that calling the path cleared may be early, with commentary pointing to an outstanding federal trustee objection still standing between the plan and confirmation. On that reading, the sequencing is set but the end date is not. Also today, a development on the Boston Beer guidance reset we reported last week. Brewbound now has the company's twenty twenty-seven outlook, and the news is in the weighting. Per that reporting, the innovation slate gets priority next year, but those new brands stay relatively small in the volume outlook compared with the core fourth-category brands, Twisted Tea, Sun Cruiser and Truly Hard Seltzer. The account does not attach figures to that split. It does signal where next year's distributor and retailer support is likely to be pointed, after the cut to this year's shipment and depletions guidance. Industry reaction leans neutral to cautious, tending to look past the innovation slate and toward whether pricing and supply-chain savings can keep offsetting falling volumes, framing margin defense rather than brand momentum as the thing to watch. Separately, BevNET takes up whether Mark Anthony Brands can repeat White Claw in hard sports drinks. The argument starts from the company's hard seltzer record and asks whether that playbook transfers to the vodka-and-ade format, which that read describes as fast-growing. It follows our earlier report on Southern Glazer's adding VDKLYTE to its book, and it is the same race viewed from the supplier side rather than the distributor's. What is being tested, on that account, is whether Mark Anthony's distribution reach and launch model are what actually built the seltzer win, or whether timing did much of the work. For anyone building next year's RTD shelf set, the answer decides how much weight to give an incumbent's entry against the independents already in the segment. It remains BevNET's analysis, not a settled outcome. Now to India, where the stakes sit in how a product is classified rather than in a headline rate. Just Drinks reports that ISWAI, the body for international spirits firms operating in India, has argued that excluding bulk Scotch imports from reduced tariffs risks undermining benefits agreed in the free trade agreement with the UK. Bulk is how most Scotch reaches India for local bottling, so that exclusion would decide whether the tariff cuts actually lower landed costs for producers and bottlers planning India volume. The scope of the exclusion and any official response are not confirmed in that reporting. Reaction leans toward treating this as the first real stress test of the agreement rather than a one-off tax dispute. Now, a few more headlines moving the trade today. Columbia Distributing says it has completed its transaction with RNDC for certain beverage distribution assets in Alaska, its first entry into that state. In the UK, the Wine and Spirit Trade Association is pressing the government against an expected Autumn Budget duty rise, which Harpers reports is anticipated to track RPI inflation at two point nine percent. Per Business Standard, the Indian Malt Whisky Association and the Scotch Whisky Association have signed a cooperation pact covering sustainability, product protection and regulatory engagement. One last headline. Brewbound reports the hemp beverage trade is under two months from a federal ban on nearly all products now in market, with no replacement framework enacted.