FIFCO USA CEO Adrian Lachowski will exit the company on January 15, 2020, Costa Rica-headquartered global beverage company FIFCO (Florida Ice and Farm Co.) announced Wednesday. FIFCO expects to announce Lachowski’s successor in mid-January.

Nancy Palmer has left her post as the executive director of the Georgia Craft Brewers Guild to become the director of government affairs at the Georgia Chamber of Commerce. Palmer, the first woman to receive the Brewers Association’s F.X. Matt Defense of the Industry Award, started at the Georgia Chamber of Commerce in November. She had served as executive director of the guild since being promoted to the post in July 2014.

Craft brewers are on pace for another year of low single-digit growth, the Brewers Association announced today in its annual “The Year in Beer” review. The not-for-profit trade organization representing small and independent U.S. craft breweries projects 2019 volume growth of 4%, down slightly from the 2018 number.

Canadian Cannabis company Canopy Growth Corporation announced today the appointment of David Klein as CEO, effective January 14, 2020. Meanwhile, Constellation Brands has named Garth Hankinson as Klein’s replacement.

Richard Mahoney, the chairman of the board of The Wine Group, is the lead investor in Chicagoland craft brewery Kings & Convicts’ acquisition of Ballast Point Brewing Company from Constellation Brands, according to the ChicagoTribune. Brooklyn Brewery restructures sales force.

Four years after paying $1 billion for Ballast Point Brewing Company, Constellation Brands today threw in the towel on its big craft bet, announcing an agreement to sell the San Diego craft beer brand along with “a number of its associated production facilities and brewpubs” to Kings & Convicts, a little-known Chicagoland craft brewing company.

White Claw maker Mark Anthony Brands plans to spend $385 million — $135 million more than the previously projected $250 million — to build production facilities in New Jersey and at a still-undisclosed location in the western United States, founder and CEO Anthony von Mandl shared during the Beer Insights Seminar conference in New York on Monday.

Another day, another deal. One day after New Belgium announced a proposed sale to Kirin-owned Lion Little World Beverages, rollup play Artisanal Brewing Ventures (ABV) revealed an agreement to expand its portfolio beyond beer with the planned acquisition of Bold Rock Hard Cider in Nellysford, Virginia.

Another member of the old guard of craft brewing sold today when Kirin-owned Lion Little World Beverages announced a “definitive agreement” to acquire 100% of New Belgium Brewing Company in an all cash transaction.

A number of members of Anheuser-Busch InBev’s corporate affairs team have left the company since early 2019. Cider strategist Caitlin Braam parts ways with Angry Orchard. Beverage operations manager Jonny Stringer departs CraftWorks.

Over the last eight weeks, Anheuser-Busch InBev and Craft Brew Alliance (CBA) have been working together to finally complete a merger of the long linked together beer companies. The culmination of that work came Monday with the announcement that A-B, which owns 31.2% of CBA, would acquire the remaining stake in the publicly traded Portland, Oregon-headquartered craft brewing company.

Anheuser-Busch InBev and Craft Brew Alliance (CBA) announced today that the world’s largest beer company will acquire the remaining 68.8% of CBA that it did not own for $16.50 per share in cash.

Pabst Brewing Company today announced a long-term agreement to brew the majority of its production volume at City Brewing Company by December 2024. The Los Angeles-headquartered beer company’s agreement with City Brewing lasts until 2040. News of the new contract agreement comes one year after Pabst Brewing settled a lawsuit against MillerCoors over contract production of its brands.

In this week’s edition of Last Call: Drake and Canopy Growth partner to launch More Life Growth Company; Walmart offers curbside pickup of alcohol in 29 states; JetBlue to offer Truly Hard Seltzer; and more news bites.