Constellation Brands to invest up to USD 600 million in capacity increases

In the years since 2013, when Constellation Brands added the Mexican brands Corona, Modelo Especial, Victoria and Pacífico to its portfolio, its beer market share in the US has tripled. Now the company plans to invest up to USD 600 million at its Mexican breweries during 2018 to keep its growth.

Five years ago, Constellation Brands’ market share was four percent. In 2017 it was twelve percent, making it the only major US brewer which has enjoyed sizeable sales hikes. The company is optimistic that it can achieve an annual growth rate of one percent for the foreseeable future, media say.

It was a stroke of luck that Constellation Brands could buy from Grupo Modelo the rights to market these brands in the US, after antitrust regulators demanded this condition to approve the buyout of the Mexican brewer by AB-InBev in order to balance the competition.

Since then, Constellation Brands has undertaken a ten-year investment plan with the intention of increasing production capacity in Mexico. So far, it has invested more than USD four billion and will spend somewhere between USD 500 million and USD 600 million this year, it was reported.

The investments have been used in the acquisition of the Nava plant in Piedras Negras, Coahuila, where the company produces ten million hl beer per year and wants to reach 30 million hl by the end of this year; at the Ciudad Obregon plant, whose production is growing from 2.5 to 3.5 million hl beer; and a joint additional investment of USD 140 million with Owens Illinois for the expansion of the glass container plant.

In January 2016, Constellations Brands announced the investment of USD 1.5 billion to build a brewery in Mexicali, Baja California, which will have a capacity of ten million hl beer by December 2019.