Brazil: Schincariol intends to boost its spending on advertising. Executives at the Brazilian brewer said this week that they intend to keep up the pressure on AmBev for market share in the domestic market.

The brewer has earmarked BRL180m (US$63.4m) for marketing, in an attempt to keep the pressure on AmBev. During 2003, Schincariol ate into AmBev’s dominance of the Brazilian beer market, as its share increased from less than 10% in June to 13.4% in the final months of the year. Although Schincariol’s share increases stalled in December last year, the company maintained this week that it could have sold more beer last month if only they had the capacity to brew more beer to sell.

Currently, Schincariol brews around 2.1 billion litres of beer per year. Executives plan to increase capacity by 10% by upgrading equipment at existing breweries in addition to building a new plant in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul this year. Executives admitted, however, that the company can only brew enough beer to control 17% of Brazil's market by the end of 2004.