Food and beverage conglomerates and entry routes

CMI (Corporación Multi Inversiones), founded in 1920, reports around 54,000 employees and a presence in more than 15 countries, with businesses in milling, poultry (Pollo Campero in 7 countries), restaurants, real estate, finance and energy; these are the company's own figures, with an independent profile on BNamericas. Cervecería Centro Americana is the dominant player in beer, but as a private company it publishes neither output nor market share; the bottlers (cbc/Beliv, a multi-country PepsiCo bottler) were not researched in depth in this pass. Entry is typically by acquisition or joint venture with family groups; the conglomerates dominate retail distribution, a real barrier for entrants — this last point is the atlas's own analysis, with no quantitative source, to be cross-checked in the data phase.

The research is written in English; quoted figures, source names and the titles of legal instruments stay in the language their source published them in.