Beer will run out ‘in days’
BELGIANS could soon be deprived of their favourite beer, Stella Artois, because of a strike by brewery workers.
Supermarkets there have warned they will run out of supplies in less than a week if the world’s biggest brewer, AB InBev, fails to stop the action.
Stella Artois is also Britain’s favourite beer with annual sales of £516million. UK supplies are currently safe because the beer is also brewed here.
But it is feared that industrial action could spread to Britain if AB InBev goes ahead with plans to cut its 8,000-strong European workforce by 10 per cent.
In Belgium some smaller shops have already run out of the famous beer.
Stocks of Leffe and Jupiler are also under threat as workers continue the week-long blockade at three plants where the beers are made.
AB InBev wants to shed 300 jobs in Belgium and Germany because beer consumption has fallen by about a fifth since 2000.
Union members took 10 managers hostage at the company’s Jupiler brewery in eastern Belgium last week.
They were all released unharmed the next day.