Constellation Brands CEO, Bill Newlands, while on Yahoo Finance once again spoke about the Corona Beer, saying most consumers understands that the drink has nothing to do with Coronavirus.
Remember, early this year when Twitter erupted with memes of Corona the beer and the coronavirus. Meanwhile, online searches for “corona beer virus” reportedly spiked. That doesn’t appear to have had any financial impact on Corona beer sales, per Newlands’ comments.
And it definitely didn’t show up in Constellation Brands’ (STZ) most recent quarter, either.
The brand which has grown to over 20 per cent withing the pandemic has gotten business enthusiast curious on how people are patronizing a drink with myth of bringing Coronavirus.
The Constellation Brands, Inc., a Fortune 500 company, is an international producer and marketer of beer, wine and spirits. Constellation is the largest beer import company in the US, measured by sales, and has the third-largest market share of all major beer suppliers. It also has investments in medical marijuana.
Bill Newlands said, “Most consumers understand Corona the brand has nothing to do with corona the virus. Our consumers are very comfortable with the brand and the results speak for themselves. Recent data show our Corona brand is up over 20%. So very strong performance.”
Moreso, for the fiscal fourth quarter, which ended on Feb. 29, Corona brand depletions — a key beer industry metric — rose to a solid 5%.
The New Corona brands drinks such as Corona Premier, Corona Refresca and Corona Hard Seltzer all performed strongly in the quarter, Newlands told analysts on an early April earnings call.
Modelo brand depletions increased by 18 per cent while constellation’s overall beer segment sales improvedby 8.9 per cent from 2019 and wine and spirits organic sales gained by 3.7 per cent.
The Corona Beer, better known as Corona Extra is a pale lager produced by Cervecería Modelo in Mexico and owned by AB InBev in Belgium. It is one of the top-selling beers worldwide.
The beer is commonly served with a wedge of lime or lemon in the neck of the bottle to add tartness and flavour.
In good faith, Bill Newlands remains confident in the outlook for the business — which includes wines as well — despite social distancing efforts this summer coupled with fact that there has been a shift in alcohol consumption to homes from bars and restaurants.
“We are seeing more direct to consumer. We have got [wine] brands like Kim Crawford up 30%. Meiomi is up. Even Woodbridge is up 28%, which is one of our bigger brands. Consumers are buying tried and true brands and stocking up on it. It’s one of the simple pleasures people look for at a time when they are largely sheltering in their homes,” Newlands explains.
