Constellation’s Bill Hackett on Corngate: “That bulls**t”

USA | Constellation Brand’s past president Bill Hackett did not mince words. At the Beverage Forum in Chicago, on 1 May 2019, he called AB-InBev and MillerCoors’ spat over using corn syrup to brew beer plain and simply “that Corngate bulls**t”.

Mr Hackett, who succeeded in turning the Mexican beers Corona and Modelo into multi-billion brands for Constellation, went on to describe the controversy as “crazy” since it is detrimental to the whole category’s health.

Mr Hackett, 66, who retired as President of Constellation’s beer division earlier this year, made it clear that during his several decades with the company, “we never promoted our beer by denigrating anybody else’s.” Still, he thought that Corngate is “indicative of the challenges [AB-InBev and MillerCoors] face.”

Both AB-InBev and MillerCoors have been losing volume sales and market shares for years. Industry insiders continue to be baffled why AB-InBev chose to hit its rival MillerCoors so low. A conference delegate, who does not want to be named, has his own theory. It runs: If you cannot grow your own business, at least you can mess up your competitor’s.

Meanwhile, MillerCoors has sued AB-InBev for the corn syrup ad campaign that began airing during the Super Bowl in February 2019. A preliminary injunction was not granted. But there will be a hearing on the case on 16 May 2019.