Molson Coors to distribute Modelo brands in the UK and Japan
Corona Extra accounts for 90 percent of the distribution of Grupo Modelo’s products in the UK. Other prominent brands in the Modelo portfolio include Coronita (210 ml bottles of Corona), Modelo Especial, Pacífico, and Negra Modelo.
Molson Coors will be hoping to exploit the growing popularity of international beers in the UK.
According to Nielsen, world beer sales in the off-premise increased by 20 percent to GBP 237 million in the year to 10 July 2010 against flat sales for mainstream lagers such as Foster’s and Carling.
In the on-premise, sales increased 3 percent to GBP 795 million against a 4 percent decline for everyday lagers.
It was reported that in the world beer category Corona Extra is second to SABMiller’s Peroni in on-trade volume sales and the third biggest seller in the off-premise, according to CGA and Nielsen respectively.
The Mexican beer will join Molson Coors’ existing world beer portfolio, which also includes Cobra, Singha and Grolsch.
Molson Coors will take over distribution duties from Wells & Young, the UK’s largest privately-owned brewer and pub operator. That must have been a blow because it ended a 15-year association. Wells & Young also revealed that it has recently lost the right to distribute Red Stripe in the UK.
Wells & Young’s chairman Paul Wells was quoted as saying that the company could be seen as “a victim of its own success.”
“We are very proud of the work we have done with both brands, but particularly with Corona Extra, which we have grown from a 150,000 case brand to a 5 million case brand in 15 years. You have to wonder if we hadn’t been so successful if the brands would be quite so attractive.”
The loss of Corona Extra in particular will make “quite an impact” on the business Wells said. The brands account for 40 percent of Wells & Young’s turnover — around GBP 85 million worth of business.
