By Bill Raack, KWMU
St. Louis, Mo. – Anheuser-Busch is reporting record sales and earnings figures for the fourth quarter of 2002, and for the entire year.
The St. Louis-based brewery sold more than one million barrels of beer domestically last year for the first time in its history.
Net sales increased 7% in the fourth quarter and 5% for the full year. Earnings per share were up more than 18% for the last three months of 2002, and 14% for the year.
The maker of the world's best-selling regular and light beers, Budweiser and Bud Light, earned $269 million in the October-December period. That's compared to $228 million dollars a year ago.
The company continued to inch closer to having half the domestic beer market. Anheuser-Busch's domestic market share rose last year to about 49 percent.