Category: 3. Business

Transaction unites two iconic businesses with portfolios of beloved brands

Mars Snacking poised to shape the future of snacking and serve more consumers globally

McLean, Virginia and Chicago, Illinois (December 11, 2025) – Mars, Incorporated, a family-owned, global leader in pet care, snacking and food, is pleased to announce the successful completion of its acquisition of Kellanova, whose portfolio includes Pringles®, Cheez-It®, Pop-Tarts®, Rice Krispies Treats®, RXBAR® and Kellogg’s international cereal brands. The combination brings together two iconic businesses with beloved brands, storied legacies and outstanding capabilities – now united to shape the future of snacking.

“Today marks a transformative moment and I’m excited to welcome Kellanova to Mars,” said Andrew Clarke, Global President of Mars Snacking. “United by more than a century of pioneering new categories and building iconic brands, Mars and Kellanova are joining forces to shape the future of snacking. With more than 50,000 Mars Snacking Associates and partners around the world, we’re now positioned to bring consumers more of the brands they love and new innovations — while continuing to advance our sustainability commitments and invest for the long term.”

The new Mars Snacking will operate in attractive snacking categories, adding Kellanova’s billion-dollar brands – Pringles®, Cheez-It® and Kellogg’s® – to the Mars business. The existing Mars portfolio includes billion-dollar snacking and confectionery brands like SNICKERS®, M&M’S®, TWIX®, DOVE®, SKITTLES® and EXTRA®, as well as KIND® and Nature’s Bakery®. The addition of Kellanova also expands the portfolio of Accelerator, a division of Mars Snacking, with complementary brands like RXBAR®, Nutri-Grain® bars and Special K® bars.

Mars, Incorporated announced on August 14, 2024, that it had entered into a definitive agreement under which Mars agreed to acquire Kellanova. The transaction received Kellanova shareowner approval on November 1, 2024. The acquisition received all required regulatory approvals as of December 8, 2025.

About Mars, Incorporated
Mars, Incorporated is driven by the belief that the world we want tomorrow starts with how we do business today. As a $65bn+ family-owned business, our diverse and expanding portfolio of leading pet care products, veterinary services, and quality snacking and food products delight millions of people and support pets all around the world. With the strategic acquisition of Kellanova, we have further enhanced our capabilities and expanded our reach in the global market. We produce some of the world’s best-loved brands including ROYAL CANIN®, PEDIGREE®, WHISKAS®, CESAR®, DOVE®, EXTRA®, M&M’S®, SNICKERS®, BEN’S ORIGINAL™, and now, iconic brands from Kellanova including Pringles®, Cheez-It® and Pop-Tarts®. Our international networks of pet hospitals, including BANFIELD™, BLUEPEARL™, VCA™, and ANICURA™, span preventive, general, specialty, and emergency veterinary care, and our global veterinary diagnostics business ANTECH® offers breakthrough capabilities in pet diagnostics. The Mars Five Principles — Quality, Responsibility, Mutuality, Efficiency and Freedom — inspire our more than 170,000 Associates to act every day to help create a better world for people, pets and the planet. 

For more information about Mars, please visit www.mars.com. Join us on Facebook(Opens a new window), Instagram(Opens a new window), LinkedIn(Opens a new window) and YouTube(Opens a new window).

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Contacts
Denise Young
Mars, Incorporated 
denise.young@effem.com 

Christi O’Brien
Mars, Incorporated 
christi.obrien@effem.com

NEW YORK – December 11, 2025 – Today, Blackstone Credit & Insurance (“BXCI”) announced a forward flow origination partnership with Harvest Commercial Capital, LLC (“Harvest”), a leader in small business lending, to acquire business loans secured by first lien mortgages on owner-occupied commercial real estate. Under the terms of the partnership, BXCI has purchased an initial portfolio of loans and established a forward flow program for a total of $1 billion in loans.

Under the long-term partnership, BXCI will acquire small business loans from Harvest, including both SBA 504 and non-SBA conventional loans, providing permanent capital to expand lending to small businesses across the United States.

“We are excited to expand our asset-based credit platform by partnering with Harvest to bring much needed financing solutions to many small businesses, secured by their real estate assets,” said Aneek Mamik and Nick Menzies, Senior Managing Directors at Blackstone Credit & Insurance. “We believe their multifaceted approach to underwriting and comprehensive underlying collateral package creates a differentiated and attractive lending program.”

“Blackstone’s scale and expertise make them an ideal partner, and their commitment to Harvest validates the strength of our franchise and the critical role we play in serving America’s small businesses,” said Jason Raefski, Chief Financial Officer of Harvest Commercial Capital. “This capital relationship allows us to significantly expand our lending capabilities while maintaining our disciplined underwriting standards.”

Harvest will continue to operate independently, maintaining its specialized expertise in SBA 504 and conventional small balance commercial loans while benefitting from Blackstone’s platform and scaled insurance capital base.

BXCI’s Infrastructure and Asset Based Credit group manages over $100 billion and has over 80 investment professionals, as of September 30, 2025. The platform is focused on providing investment grade credit, non-investment grade credit, and structured investments across the real economy in sectors such as physical assets and infrastructure, commercial finance, fund finance, consumer finance, and residential loans.

About Blackstone Credit & Insurance
Blackstone Credit & Insurance (“BXCI”) is one of the world’s leading credit investors. Our investments span the credit markets, including private investment grade, asset-based lending, public investment grade and high yield, sustainable resources, infrastructure debt, collateralized loan obligations, direct lending and opportunistic credit. We seek to generate attractive risk-adjusted returns for institutional and individual investors by offering companies capital needed to strengthen and grow their businesses. BXCI is also a leading provider of investment management services for insurers, helping those companies better deliver for policyholders through our world-class capabilities in investment grade private credit.

About Harvest Commercial Capital, LLC
Harvest Commercial Capital, LLC is a Delaware limited liability company that originates, owns, sells and services first-lien small balance commercial loans backed generally by multi-purpose commercial real estate. HCC originates conventional loans and first-lien loans pursuant to the U.S. Small Business Administration’s (“SBA”) 504 loan program. HCC is majority owned by an affiliate of Medalist Partners, LP, an SEC registered investment manager with approximately $2.3 billion of net assets under management as of September 2025, that invests predominantly in securitized credit and asset-based private credit strategies. HCC was founded in February 2016 and is based in Laguna Hills, CA.

Contacts
Blackstone
David Vitek
[email protected]
(212) 583-5291
 
Harvest Commercial Capital
Adam Seery
[email protected]  

Temu’s European headquarters in Dublin have been raided by EU regulators investigating a potential breach of foreign subsidy regulations.

The Chinese online retailer, which is already in the European Commission’s spotlight over alleged failures to prevent illegal content being sold on its app and website, was raided last week without warning or any subsequent publicity.

“We can confirm that the commission has carried out an unannounced inspection at the premises of a company active in the e-commerce sector in the EU, under the foreign subsidies regulation,” a commission spokesperson said on Thursday.

Temu was approached for comment.

Its headquarters are on St Stephen’s Green, one of Dublin’s most prestigious addresses. Neighbours include the five-star Shelbourne hotel and Cantor Fitzgerald, a US finance company.

The EU’s foreign subsidies regulation targets companies judged to have been given a competitive advantage through government subsidies.

The EU introduced tariffs of up to 38% on a series of Chinese car manufacturers last year after a long investigation under World Trade Organization rules. It concluded the companies were receiving direct and indirect subsidies from the Chinese government, including help shipping cars to Europe and in securing land for factories.

Temu, which has about 116 million monthly users in the EU, boasts it offers consumers the opportunity to “shop like a billionaire” by connecting them with “millions of sellers, manufacturers and brands with the mission to empower them to live a better life”.

The commission opened an investigation into Temu last year under its 2022 Digital Services Act, which governs online platforms.

Officials said in July that preliminary findings showed Temu was not doing enough to prevent the sale of illegal products. A Temu spokesperson said at the time: “Temu takes product safety and compliance very seriously. We have a system of seller vetting, proactive monitoring and responsive takedowns to prevent, detect and remove unsafe products.”

Concerns are growing about the trade relationship between the EU and China, with figures last month showing Germany was, for the first time, importing more from China than it was exporting.

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The extent of the imbalance was evident this week in figures showing that China’s global exports in the first 11 months of the year outpaced imports by more than $1tn (£750bn).

A significant portion of that surplus was generated by shipments to the EU, which last year ran a trade deficit with China of more than $350bn.

It is thought that manufacturers in China have been directing more goods to non-US markets in response to US tariffs, fuelling an export surge to Europe, Australia and south-east Asia.

This article provides a review of HM Treasury’s (the Treasury) consultation on assumption by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) of responsibility for Anti-Money Laundering (AML) supervision across professional services sectors.

The Treasury’s proposal represents a fundamental shift in the regulatory landscape, aiming to consolidate oversight under a single authority. This move responds to concerns raised by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) regarding fragmented supervision and seeks to enhance consistency, accountability, and effectiveness. The following sections explore the key proposals, consultation questions, sector-specific impacts, gaps, and detailed timelines, which will be of interest to law firms and accountancy practices. Our analysis underscores the importance of proportionality and sector-specific expertise in implementing these changes.

Key Proposals

The Treasury’s proposals are ambitious and far-reaching. At their core, they aim to replace multiple professional body supervisors with a Single Professional Services Supervisor (SPSS). This consolidation is intended to eliminate inconsistencies and improve enforcement outcomes. 

Supervision

Enhanced supervisory powers for the FCA will allow for inspections, skilled person reviews, and enforcement actions, ensuring compliance with the Money Laundering Regulations (MLRs). The Treasury’s proposal will require law and accountancy firms to adjust to this additional source of regulatory supervision. Although intended to concentrate regulatory supervision in one regulator and plug gaps across the entire professional sector, it will nevertheless inevitably result in increasing the burden on professional businesses, which appears to be in opposition to the Treasury’s discourse on reducing said burden. For professional businesses that are already subject to particularly rigorous supervisory powers, such as audit firms regulated by the Financial Reporting Council, the additional regulatory burden of AML supervision by the FCA will be an unwelcome strain on existing resources.

Registration and gatekeeping

Other key elements of the Treasury’s proposal include registration and gatekeeping powers, enabling the FCA to maintain a public register and conduct fit-and-proper tests for beneficial owners and senior managers.

The consultation proposes a risk-based approach to AML regulation, leveraging data analytics to prioritise high-risk firms and sectors. 

Guidance 

Responsibility for guidance on anti-money laundering (AML)/counter terrorist financing (CTF) for professional service providers will be transferred over to the FCA.

Information and Intelligence

Under the proposal, the FCA would be under an obligation to provide up-to-date information on AML and CTF to the firms they supervise. This includes relevant information on money laundering and terrorist financing practices identified by the supervisor, HM Treasury, the Home Office or the NCA. Separately, FCA could carry out intelligence-sharing with law enforcement, other supervisors and authorities as appropriate, and support whistleblowing. The NCA would be required to share with the FCA the Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) submitted by regulated firms. 

Enforcement

The FCA would have the same enforcement powers it already exercises in relation to the financial services firms (fines, warnings or criminal prosecutions, depending on the severity of the failure) and, in addition, it would be able to issue minor fines for more routine instances of non-compliance such as failure to register.

Appeals

Decisions made by the FCA in relation to their AML/CTF supervision of professional services firms would be appealable to the Upper Tribunal.

Funding and Fees

The FCA is funded by fees from the firms it regulates. The Treasury proposes that the costs of the FCA’s expanded supervisory duties in relation to AML are met by the law and accountancy firms to which the new regime will apply. 

Transition and Supervisory Co-Ordination

The FCA has signaled its intention to work closely with existing regulators and members bodies involved in regulation and supervision of professional services during this phase to ensure that knowledge of the various professional services sectors is retained.

Under the proposal, it is envisaged that the various existing professional members bodies and regulators will no longer have AML/CTF supervisory oversight, whilst continuing to operate their other existing functions. The Treasury acknowledges that once the FCA’s new AML role is fully operational, some firms may experience a degree of dual regulation with requirements to interact with their professional bodies for non-AML/CTF related matters and with the FCA for AML/CTF related matters. The Treasury, FCA, HMRC and the professional body supervisors plan to work together on how to limit the burden of this dual regulation.

Key Questions Asked in Consultation

The consultation raises several critical questions that will shape the future of AML supervision. Stakeholders are invited to comment on whether the proposed powers are sufficient for effective oversight and whether sector-specific supervisory teams should be established to address unique risks in law and accountancy. 

Various questions around the transition process are asked in the consultation, including how a smooth and low-burden transition may be best achieved, and how an information-sharing regime can be established between the FCA and other regulators. 

Whilst the consultation proposes amendments to information sharing and envisages that information gateways will be broad enough to encompass information sharing by the FCA in its broadened role with the relevant professional services bodies, the scope is unclear including whether this would encompass suspicious activity reports (SARS) that are received by the FCA from the NCA. We suggest that there need to be some guard-rails around the onwards transmission of information obtained by the FCA to other regulators for use in connection with purposes other than AML/CTF. 

Stakeholders have been invited to comment on the proposal that the FCA will charge fees to professional services firms for AML regulation. The FCA intends to consult on how it intends to do this in due course. 

Finally, whilst existing guidance, such as the Legal Sector Affinity Group (LSAG) for law firms and CCAB for accountants, is considered valuable, the consultation asks whether responsibility for issuing AML/CTF guidance should be transferred over to the FCA.

Impact on the Legal and Accountancy Sectors

FCA AML/CTF supervision of law and accountancy firms will mark something of a step change in AML/CTF regulation for these sectors. While the core obligations under the MLRs remain unchanged, firms should anticipate differences in supervisory style and prepare accordingly. The shift to a more assertive, risk based and data driven approach under FCA-led oversight will require consideration of the need for cultural and operational adjustments. 

Firms must be ready to provide evidence of their compliance with requirements, including written policies and procedures that are adequate for the purpose (and evidence that they have been implemented and are being applied effectively), with detailed documentation of risk assessments, client due diligence, and ongoing monitoring, given the FCA’s modus operandi of detailed systems and controls examination including through data-driven inspections. 

Practical steps for firms to consider ahead of the change to FCA supervision include reviewing their governance structures, fostering a culture of compliance across all levels of the organisation, enhancing training programmes, and investing in AML technology to support compliance.

Concerns have arisen among professional firms in response to the proposals in a number of respects including:

• the FCA’s currently limited understanding of the sector (including unique AML risks posed by certain areas of work such as conveyancing for law firms); 
• the potential for “fit and proper” assessments of officers and managers to be intrusive and overlap with existing professional regulation; 
• the potential for time-consuming and expensive “skilled person” reports;
• the potential for a significant overall increase in the cost of compliance and the time and resources needed and,
• how legal professional privilege will be handled in a different regulatory environment.

Firms that are subject to any ongoing AML/CTF investigations and enforcement actions will no doubt wish to seek clarity on whether these proceedings will be transferred to the FCA. 

Firms responding to the consultation will most likely wish to advocate for clear guidance including on transitional arrangements and funding, as well as for proportional enforcement, to avoid unnecessary disruption. 

Gaps in the Consultation

The consultation does not identify timelines for implementation of the Treasury’s proposals for transferring powers to the FCA, nor does it deal with operational issues about transfer of investigations, and strategies for retaining sector-specific expertise. 

The consultation does not tackle the potential for overlapping supervision and enforcement actions between the FCA and existing professional regulators, such as the SRA and professional accountancy bodies. 

Stakeholders have called for clearer guidance on transitional arrangements and proportionality in enforcement to avoid unnecessary disruption. 

The consultation also lacks detail on how the FCA will engage with smaller firms to ensure compliance without imposing disproportionate burdens. 

Timelines

The consultation was commenced on 9 November and runs until 24 December 2025, so firms now have very limited time to respond.

The Treasury’s transition plan is expected in 2026. It was anticipated that the proposals would be fully implemented before the global FATF performs its evaluation of the UK AML and CTF measures in August 2027. However, according to HM Treasury’s latest indications, primary legislation is required and is very unlikely to pass before late 2026. While interim work can proceed, the transfer of AML supervision to the FCA is unlikely to begin before 2028. Firms should therefore plan for a phased transition over the next 2–3 years.

Nevertheless, preparations by professional firms for FCA-style supervision can begin now. Early preparation will be critical to mitigating risks and ensuring a smooth transition. 

Comment

The FCA’s proposed takeover of AML supervision represents a significant regulatory shift for law and accountancy firms. Proactive engagement with the consultation and early adaptation to FCA expectations will be essential to maintaining compliance and mitigating risks.

PeaceRep had a strong presence at the IEEE VIS 2025 conference in Vienna – the world’s leading conference for scientific visualisation, data visualisation, and visual analytics. Organised by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the conference brings together experts in the field from around the world. This year, all three submissions involving PeaceRep were accepted, highlighting the consortium’s growing contribution to visualisation research at the intersection of peace, conflict, and data.

PeaceRep’s accepted work included:

• A poster and accompanying short paper showcasing PeaceTech visualisation research
• A dedicated workshop on visualising peace and conflict resolution
• A full research paper, co-authored by PeaceRep visualisation researchers, and which received a Best Paper Honorable Mention

 

Poster Exhibition: Visualising Peace and Conflict

[Download the poster and the accompanying paper]

Created collaboratively by current and former PeaceTech researchers at PeaceRep [Tomas Vancisin, Jinrui Wang, Niamh Henry, Sarah Schöttler, Lucy Havens, Tobias Kauer, Sanja Badanjak, Christine Bell, and Benjamin Bach], the poster highlighted PeaceRep’s three key approaches to supporting peace mediation through visualisation technology:

1. Analysis
2. Communication
3. Tracking

Featuring nine visualisations, the poster presented an emerging area of research that combines peace and conflict resolution with data visualisation as a way to address humanitarian and societal issues from new perspectives.

The poster drew significant attention throughout the conference. Some attendees were curious how peace and conflict can be represented visually, and what data makes this possible. Others were impressed by PeaceRep’s range of PeaceTech visualisations, and connected the exhibits to their own experiences, emphasising the potential for these tools to engage broader public audiences.

 

Workshop: Bringing Peace and Conflict to VIS4DH

Two out of seven days at the IEEE VIS conference are dedicated to workshops, including the long-running Visualisation for Digital Humanities (VIS4DH) workshop, now in its ninth year. VIS4DH focuses specifically on the intersection between the humanities and visualisation, and how these two areas of research can be advanced by combining research approaches.

This year, PeaceRep Research Associate Tomas Vancisin served as a co-organiser of VIS4DH and successfully advocated for Peace and Conflict to be the main theme, allowing for this (still relatively new) type of research to have unprecedented visibility within in the global visualisation community.

The VIS4DH team invited Jan Pospisil (Coventry University) to be the keynote speaker in recognition of his expertise and direct experience of gathering data in conflict settings through PeaceRep’s Perceptions of Peace in South Sudan surveys. The keynote attracted a diverse audience from across the VIS and Digital Humanities community, offering a rare insight into data collection and analysis in complex conflict environments.

 

Award-Winning Paper: Transparency Through Visualisation Badges

PeaceRep researchers also contributed to the paper The Visualization Badges: Communicating Design and Provenance through Graphical Labels Alongside Visualizations, authored by Valentin Edelsbrunner, Jinrui Wang (PeaceRep), Alexis Pister, Tomas Vancisin (PeaceRep), Sian Phillips, Min Chen, and Benjamin Bach (PeaceRep).

The paper introduces a new way to make data visualisations clearer and more honest: graphical badges. These badges act like small visual cues placed alongside a chart to communicate important context. They can flag a major finding, indicate when an axis has been truncated, or warn viewers about potential visual artifacts. In doing so, they help visualisation creators explain their analytical and design choices, while also helping readers better interpret what they see.

The framework behind these badges grew out of a series of co-design workshops involving PeaceRep researchers, which shaped both the concept and its practical use. PeaceRep’s “Messy Timeline” visualisation was highlighted as an example for discussion, with PeaceRep researchers providing critical assessments of open data principles and uncertainty communication. This example became an important case study for the visualisation badges, and is featured on the badge website.

The project resulted in:

• a catalogue of 132 visualisation badges, including different design options
• multiple categorisation schemes
• real-world visualisation examples
• a set of clear guidelines for implementation

This paper was awarded a “Best Paper Honorable Mention,” placing it among the top 5% of all submissions at the conference.

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Citations

Edelsbrunner, V., Wang, J., Pister, A., Vancisin, T., Phillips, S., Chen, M., & Bach, B. (2026). Visualization Badges: Communicating Design and Provenance through Graphical Labels Alongside Visualizations. IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics.

 

Explore PeaceRep’s suite of data visualisation and PeaceTech tools →

Vattenfall has once again earned the highest possible rating, an A, in the non-profit organisation CDP’s latest climate change evaluation. The rating confirms Vattenfall’s continuous efforts towards fossil freedom, placing us in an exclusive group of companies that demonstrate leadership and transparency in climate strategy, governance, and results on a global level.

CDP, a non-profit global organisation, annually reviews companies worldwide on their work with climate change, deforestation, or water security, based on a large number of information criteria. In 2025, nearly 20,000 companies were reviewed and ranked from A to D. Only two percent of these companies received an A rating, among them was Vattenfall, which received top marks for its climate work.

“I am very proud that we once again are part of the exclusive group of A-listed companies. It shows that we are on the right track towards our Net Zero Targets”, says Helle Herk-Hansen, Vice President Environment at Vattenfall. “This achievement is the result of strong collaboration across Vattenfall as well as with our customers and partners as we work together towards our goal of enabling fossil freedom.”

CDP operates the world’s only independent environmental disclosure system and assesses thousands of companies each year. Achieving an ‘A’ places Vattenfall among the global leaders demonstrating comprehensive disclosure, mature environmental governance, and meaningful progress towards environmental resilience.

CDP’s scoring draws on a rigorous and independent methodology, aligned with the TCFD* framework. It evaluates companies’ depth of reporting, understanding of environmental risks, and evidence of best practice – including ambitious target-setting and verified action. CDP maintains the world’s largest repository of environmental information and is widely relied on to guide investment and procurement decisions that support a net-zero, sustainable and earth-positive global economy. 

Learn more about Vattenfall’s environmental and sustainability work 

Learn more about Vattenfall’s climate transition plan 

CDP Scores and A-lists

* Taskforce for climate related financial disclosures

For further information, please contact:
Vattenfall Media Relations, phone: +46 (0)8 739 50 10, e-mail: press@vattenfall.com

Rohit Markan is an experienced leader with more than 28 years of expertise in different fields, multiple industries and locations. He demonstrated his proficiency in Sales, Marketing, Finance, Manufacturing, Project Leadership, Innovation Management, Profit and Loss Management, Country Leadership and Board Management. He has successfully led multiple transformation initiatives and achieved revenue as well as profitability growth on different occasions.

Over the course of his career, he has held several management positions, including as a managing director for Roquette India Private Limited, Senior Vice President Sales for Roquette Asia Pacific and Global Marketing Manager for Solar Solutions at Dow Chemicals. Most recently, he had the role of Global Head of Sales for the pharma business at Roquette Asia Pacific Pte Ltd. 

“Rohit Markan brings a broad portfolio of experience and perspectives from different regions, multiple industries and diverse functions which he gained in various management roles. He is the right person to further develop our industrial business activities in this important region,” said Philip Nelles, Executive Board member for ContiTech. “Rohit has repeatedly demonstrated the ability to drive change while at the same time inspiring his teams. We are delighted to have him on board as we are working together to lead ContiTech into its next chapter as an independent company. I would like to thank Hannes Friedrichsen for all the fruitful years with the company and wish him all the best for the future.”

“I am delighted to become part of ContiTech, a company with such a long tradition and so much potential”, adds Rohit Markan. “I am eager to bring in my expertise and leadership from past experiences in Asia Pacific, thus making a contribution for harnessing the companies’ potential in one of the most important growth regions for Continental.”

Alcohol is an unavoidable part of a festive spread (for more advice on which wines, beers and other drinks I like for each and every occasion, take a look at last week’s Christmas drinks guide), but, sometimes, a drink deserves a place under the tree as well as around it – especially if it’s an easy win for a drinks devotee for whom you need to buy a prezzie.

As I said at this time last year, don’t waste your time and money on fancy-dan wine kit and gadgets: I am speaking for myself here, of course, but a lot of it will ultimately find its way to a kitchen drawer, never to be seen again. I am always running out of corkscrews, however, and the one from St John is iconic and monochrome, or maybe something sleek and silver from Fortnum & Mason, perhaps?

When it comes to gifting wine, it’s a good idea to draw on the crowdpleasers to fit that specific bill. For sparkling wines, crémant is a cost-effective option if you want the delight of fizz but don’t have deep pockets. Champagne, even in a supermarket, teeters around the £50-mark these days, though there are some cute gift boxes out there to warrant the expense: Piper Heidsieck’s fire hydrant case is fun and camp, and there’s no better excuse than Christmas to break out Veuve Cliquot’s puffy bottle holder.

But if buying booze feels like too much of a minefield (drinks aficionados can be exacting types), some good stemware is a nice option, because it’s thoughtful, good-quality stuff can be had at every price point, and it’s a gift that will allow a wine lover to get the most out of wine they already have. To that end, I really, really recommend the stemware from Zara Home: most ready-to-buy fashion homeware sections are all thick glass and style over ergonomics, but much of Zara’s range is chic and purpose-built. Its Bohemia crystal plain glass, for instance, made up my first home set, and is a snip at £4.99 each. With a wide base to swirl your wine and a narrow rim to collect the aromas, it’s a great vessel to enjoy your wine in. You’ll also find matching tumblers and flutes online.

At the crazier end, Maison Balzac makes some truly zany stemware designed with your favourite beverages in mind: blown-glass chillies, for instance, adorn one short tumbler, surely created to house a spicy margarita. And it’s spenny, yes, but the original universal wine glass from Richard Brendon’s collaboration with Jancis Robinson is an excellent luxury option, too. Emphasis on the luxury here – they’re £96 for two – but if anyone is looking to get me anything for Christmas, my housemate has managed to smash two. I’ll also accept gift cards.

Four drinks gifts I’d be happy to get

Piper Heidsieck Code Rouge Gift Set £65.99 Selfridges, 12%. So silly and brilliant: Piper’s classic cuvée in a container shaped like a fire extinguisher.

Whitebox Cocktails Spicy Marg Cracker £12 Whitebox Cocktails, 20.5%. A stocking filler if ever I saw one: two 100ml cans of spicy marg.

The King’s Ginger £32.50 (50cl) Berry Bros & Rudd, 29.9%. I do not like hunting, with which this is associated, but I do like winter walks. Sip this warming gingery liqueur from a flask.

Craft Beer Case £39 (12 x 330ml) The Wine Society, various ABVs. A range of IPAs, lagers and porters for the beer-drinker in your life.