E-Malt.com News article: 2595

Colombia, Bogota: Colombia-based Bavaria Business Group said on April 30 its net profit jumped 272 % in the first quarter of 2004 from a year earlier, as drinks sales increased at home and abroad. Net profits were 22.208 billion pesos ($8.4 million) compared with 5.959 billion pesos in profit in the first quarter of 2003, Reuters reported.

The Bavaria Business Group, or Grupo Empresarial Bavaria (GEB), includes Bavaria, South America's second-largest brewer, along with non-brewing and foreign operations. "The results of the GEB for the first quarter show solid growth in the volume of sales in all of our countries of operation," the group's president, Ricardo Obregon, said in a statement.

It said that the volume of beer and malt sales grew by 5.9 %, while sales of other drinks, including mineral water and juices, rose 13.6 percent. The group's non-alcoholic brands in Colombia include Tutti Frutti juices, Brisa mineral water. In Peru, it also sells Guarana Backus.

Brewer Bavaria has been aggressively expanding its reach in Latin America, and has spent $1.1 billion on expansion and buying brewers in Peru, Ecuador, Panama and Costa Rica to double its output over the past three years. It said in March that it aimed to become the world's seventh largest brewer within three years as Latin American populations grow and beer consumption increases.

Bavaria says it is the world's 10th largest brewer. The GEB said its operating income was 1.144 trillion pesos in the first three months of the year, down 2.8 % against the same period of 2003. (US $1=2,647 pesos)


04 May, 2004