Dive Brief:
- Carlsberg has agreed to buy a majority stake in Olympic Brewery, the third-largest brewer in Greece. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
- The purchase positions Carlsberg, which already controls Mythos, the second-largest Greek brewer, for a fight for the top slot in that country. Heineken is the largest brewer in Greece, with a 55% market share.
- The deal comes just days after the Carlsberg, the world's fourth-largest brewer, announced a rise in sales in its most recent quarter.
Dive Insight:
It was just 13 months ago that Carlsberg revamped its family foundation-based corporate structure in order to make it easier to acquire rivals, and the brewer has wasted no time since then. Olympic is its third major deal of the past year, coming on the heels of deals in the Czech Republic and China.