In 2005, PepsiAmericas' international operations continued its profitability track record. Pricing and volume momentum drove international sales up almost 10 percent to $569.9 million, contributing to operating profits of $5.7 million. We continue to broaden our portfolio, grow our carbonated soft drink (CSD) category, and streamline our cost structure. Our international businesses were challenged in 2005 by significantly higher commodity costs, as well as changing trade dynamics in Hungary and economic softness in Puerto Rico.

We expanded our portfolio and footprint in Central Europe. We continued to find new ways to gain relevance with our customers and consumers in Central Europe. In 2005, we continued the roll-out of Slice to strategically compete with value brands, while gaining share in our core CSD brands in all markets. We also broadened our Lipton Tea and Tropicana offerings throughout our markets, increasing our relevance and anticipating consumers' tastes.

Adding to our line of popular beverages, we formed an alliance with InBev to distribute Beck's beer in Poland, one of the worlds fastest-growing beer markets. We are able to reach thousands of our customers with a wider product offering, and also build new relationships with traditional beer customers. In addition, we expanded our Frito Lay snack distribution into Hungary in 2005, adding to our existing distribution in the Czech Republic that began in late 2004.

And while portfolio expansion helped boost revenues, geographic expansion also contributed to our 2005 performance. In June, we purchased 49 percent of the Romanian Pepsi bottler. Romania is important both for its future potential and recent performance, adding $0.04 to our EPS in 2005.

We also found more efficient ways to make, sell and deliver our products, including the consolidation of production facilities in Poland and Hungary. Managing our costs and leveraging our infrastructure continue to be a key focus in Central Europe.

Our Caribbean markets continued to make progress. Our Caribbean operations delivered a solid performance despite an economic slowdown in Puerto Rico and a difficult hurricane season. We grew the top line with volume gains in CSDs and the expansion of our non-carbonated beverages. And we were able to navigate through the significantly higher cost environment, in part, by blowing our own bottles in Puerto Rico.

PepsiAmericas looks ahead. We will continue to look to our international markets as meaningful sources of growth. We will continue to leverage our cost structure to find more efficient ways of delivering value and find innovative ways to expand our portfolio and geographic footprint in our international businesses.