Business Notes:TAKEOVERS: Bottoms Up For Brown Ale

Never before had anyone tried to invade Scotland from Down Under. But when Australia-based Elders IXL, makers of Foster’s Lager, launched a hostile $2.7 billion takeover bid for Scottish & Newcastle Breweries in October, the Edinburgh company responded with a counterattack worthy of Robert Bruce. For the next two months, S & N will ship to 30 countries around the world 36 million bottles of its Newcastle Brown Ale with the labels printed upside down. “It’s a symbolic way of saying hands off, thumbs down, keep away,” explains managing director David Stephenson. S & N executives hope that publicity about the campaign will persuade the British government to stop the raid by Elders, which has bought up 11% of the Scotland brewery’s stock.