Cia. Cervejaria Brahma

Food & Drink Weekly, March 8, 1999

Brazil's Cia. Cervejaria Brahma, Latin America's largest brewer, laid off 108 workers, seeking to cut costs as a deepening recession squeezes profits. The staff; 1 percent of the company's work force, was dismissed from the company's Sao Paulo plant, where Brahma produces its own beer brand as well as Skol and Carlsberg.

Brahma expects sales of its beer and soft drinks to shrink about 4 percent to $1.4 billion in 1999. At the same time, the brewer has said it plans to raise prices by as much as 4 percent this month to offset an increase in import costs caused by Brazil's currency devaluation. Brahma controls half of Brazil's beer market and has 25 factories in Brazil and one each in Argentina and Venezuela.