Grant Thornton has said deals are still closing amidst the coronavirus pandemic, but the numbers are well down on Q1. Its ‘Food and beverage insights’ report said 27 deals were announced in Q2 2020 compared to 44 in Q1 and that 52 deals were done in Q2 last year, a 39% and 48% fall respectively. However, the total disclosed deal value for Q2 2020 was £2bn from 11 with publicly disclosed values, a significant increase on Q1 2020’s value of £298.8m million. A large part of this 578% increase was down to the £780m JV between Marston’s and Carlsberg to form Carlsberg Marston’s Brewing Company.