Cerveza Quilmes

Quilmes
Location Quilmes, Argentina
Opened 1888
Barrels per year 15 million hectolitres
Owner(s) AmBev (91%)
QUINSA (9%)
Active beers
Name Type
Quilmes Cristal Lager
Quilmes light Light Lager
Quilmes Bock Bock
Quilmes Stout Stout
Quilmes Red Lager Red Lager
Iguana Light Lager
Imperial Pilsner
Andes Lager
Bieckert
Norte Pilsner
Palermo Lager
Liberty Non-alcoholic beer

Cervecería y Maltería Quilmes (locally: [serβeseˈɾi.a i malteˈɾi.a ˈkilmes]) is an Argentine Brewery founded in 1888 in Quilmes, Buenos Aires Province, by Otto Bemberg, a German immigrant.

The company quickly started growing and in the 1920s it was already the most popular beer in Buenos Aires. Since then, it has become something of a national symbol, and has 75% of the beer market share in Argentina. It sponsors the Argentina national football team, and the colours of its labels are Argentina's light blue and white.

As of 2005, la Quilmes has plants in Quilmes, Zárate, Tres Arroyos, Corrientes, Tucumán and Mendoza. It is also exported to Peru, Ecuador, Mexico, Honduras, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, USA, Spain, Dominican Republic, France, UK, Italy, Australia and several other countries. It sells a yearly total of around 17 million hL of beer and 8 million hL of soft drinks and others.

QUINSA

A Quilmes 355ml can in North Korea.

The international company Quilmes Industrial S.A. (QUINSA) is a Luxembourg-based holding that controls Quilmes, and franchises PepsiCo's products, including Gatorade and Tropicana, in Argentina and Uruguay. QUINSA owns 30% of Quilmes, with 53% of the voting rights within the corporation.

In 2002, Brazilian company AmBev bought 37.5% of Quilmes S.A. in an agreement that gave AmBev control of the Quilmes brand in Argentina. The merger of the two companies created, for a brief time, the world's third largest beverage producer.

In 2004 Ambev and Interbrew merged to form a new company named InBev, integrating Quilmes into the portfolio of the former. InBev became the second largest brewery company in the world, later to become the largest when it merged with Anheuser-Busch in 2008 to create Anheuser-Busch InBev.

In 2006 AmBev increased its share of the company to over 91%, effectively taking full control of the Quilmes name.[1]

External links

References