Avenue Vine

Tom McNichols, executive vice president and marketing director at the venture, Crown Imports, praised the work Cramer-Krasselt had done with the brand so far.

“They have managed the difficult task of keeping the creative fresh, but consistently thematic. It's a formula that has helped propel Corona to the position of the top imported beer, and we expect this relationship to bring us continued success.”

“We’ve always been proud of our role in the development of Corona's award-winning campaign – from the iconic lime to the sand and sea imagery,”Cramer-Krasselt CEO Peter Krivkovich added.

Corona Extra and Corona Light are the top-selling imported and imported light beers in the US and lead a booming category across the Atlantic.

Sales of import beers rose by 11.3% in the US during the 12 months to the end of July, according to figures published by the US Beer Institute.

About Grupo Modelo:

Cervecería Modelo was formally established on 8 March 1922 in Mexico. Three years later, the company officially opened its brewery. At the time, the company was Mexico’s newest brewery group and its initial marketplace would be Mexico City and surrounding areas.

The first brand to be produced in the brewery was Modelo followed a month later by Corona.

Cervecería Modelo made its beers with the finest hops from Bohemia and Saaz. It bought its malt from the leading growers in Germany and the US.

By 1930, the company had grown to become Mexico’s largest and most modern brewer. Despite a brush with bankruptcy in the early 1930s as global recession took its toll, the company stayed afloat, and concentrated on its domestic market by strengthening distribution networks and improving facilities.

Fast forward to 1963, and Modelo was by now an integrated brewery whose own affiliated companies supplied it with barley, malt, cardboard, glass and plastic bottle tops.

Although the company sold some beer in the US in the 1930s, exports only began to be taken seriously in the 1970s, when an export department was created.

Grupo Modelo has been the world’s eighth largest brewing group since 1997, with its Corona Extra brand "the best-selling Mexican beer in the world" for the last 15 years. Corona Extra is also the fourth best-selling beer among those sold on the world market, and is the largest seller of the 450 beers imported into the US.

Today, the group’s products are available in over 150 countries around the world.

Campos Eliseos #400,
Colonia Lomas de Chapultepec
C.P. 11000
Delegación Miguel Hidalgo
01-800-GMODELO (466-3356) - From Mexico other than Mexico City
91389990 - Mexico City

About Constellation Brands:

Constellation Brands is an international producer and marketer of wine, imported beer and spirits. It boasts that it is the largest wine company in the world and the largest multi-category supplier of beverage alcohol in the US.

Constellation has two operating divisions – Constellation Wines and Constellation Beer & Spirits.

The company operates over 43 production facilities, has close to 7,500 employees and sells its products in more than 60 countries.

Canandaigua Industries Company was formed in 1945, with the aim to sell bulk wine in barrels to bottlers. In 1973, following several acquisitions, the company went public as Canandaigua Wine Company Inc. Canandaigua Brands Inc. was formed in 1997 as the parent company of Canandaigua Wine Company. The company changed its name in 2000 to Constellation Brands Inc.

Constellations biggest acquisition came in 2004, when it bought Californian wine company the Robert Mondavi Corporation.

370 Woodcliff Drive Suite 300
Fairport, NY 14450
US Tel +01 (585) 218 3600

Source: “Ad agency wins sole control over Corona,” just-drinks.com editorial team, October 18, 2006