Diageo's move to have its spirits division more focused on a small number of global brands took one step further when it sold off its Vecchia Romagna Italian brandy to Montenegro, a privately-owned Italian food and drinks group.

The other brands on the block include Cinzano and Metaxa, the Greek brandy well-known, no doubt, to Aegean island-hoppers. The final brand to go is the German brandy Asbach.

Cantrell & Cochrane has previously indicated that it would be interested in some of the Diageo brands. However, with Tayto there to be digested as the first element to its foods division and with Tayto adding £68 million (€86 million) to its already substantial debt mountain, industry sources believe C&C is unlikely to have made a serious bid for any of the Diageo brands.

As for Diageo, once again there are suggestions in the market about the desirability of having a business divided between spirits, beer and fast food.

These types of businesses are increasingly becoming focused on one product area, and this has generated speculation that Diageo may split into three separate businesses based on the three product groups.

In that sort of situation, Guinness Brewing could be demerged from Diageo with a separate stock market listing. After all, what has a pint of plain got in common with a Whopper? (For the uninitiated a Whopper is Burger King's version of a Big Mac and Diageo owns Burger King.)