Brazil: Companhia de Bebidas das Américas (AmBev) announced on January 14 the volumes for the fourth quarter and full year 2004. AmBev said its total beer volume for 2004 rose 13.8% to 79.3 million hectoliters. Beer volumes rose by 25.8% to 26.96 million hl in the fourth quarter, it said. Brazil beer volume rose 14.3% to 18.42 million hl in the fourth quarter, while Hispanic Latin America was up 8.3% to 5.77 million hl. In 2004 Brazilian beer volumes reached 57.78 million hl (+4.6%); in Hispanic Latin America: 17.9 million hl (+24.1%).

The 14% volume growth in 4Q in the Brazilian Beer operations fulfills AmBev’s commitment to recover the market share lost in 2003, which was achieved at no expense to the company’s benchmarking operating margins. AmBev's share of the Brazil beer market reached 68.1% in December, according to ACNielsen.

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