Interbrew and AmBev Combine to Create InBev

On August 27, 2004, Belgium’s Interbrew and Brazil’s AmBev completed their combination to form InBev. The structure connected large European, Canadian, and Latin American brewing businesses and assembled international and national brands under one corporate group. The combination was a decisive stage in the globalization of brewery ownership. It also demonstrates that modern consolidation did not flow only outward from the United States or Europe: AmBev and its Brazilian brands were central to the new company. The Belgian side had its own consolidation history: Artois and Piedboeuf combined in 1987 in the business that became Interbrew. Together with AmBev’s 1999 formation in Brazil, this earlier step explains how national brewing combinations supplied the building blocks for the transatlantic group, its 2008 acquisition of Anheuser-Busch, and the later SABMiller transaction.