By Anthony Harrup
MEXICO CITY-- Anheuser-Busch InBev unit Grupo Modelo said Friday
it will invest about $325 million in two plants in the southeastern
state of Yucatán, adding an aluminum beer-can factory to plans for
a new brewery that it unveiled early this year.
Construction of the plants is expected to start early in the
second half of the year, with operations set to begin in the first
half of 2017, Grupo Modelo Chief Executive Ricardo Tadeu said
during an event at the presidential residence.
The brewery will be Modelo's eighth in the country, with initial
capacity to produce 5 million hectoliters a year, including the
company's best-selling Corona Extra beer and Montejo, a brand that
is native to Yucatán.
The can factory will able to produce up to one billion cans a
year, substituting cans that are currently imported and eventually
exporting cans, officials said.
Modelo's chief rival, Heineken, is also expanding in Mexico. In
March, it said it is investing $470 million in its seventh Mexican
brewery to be built in the northern state of Coahuila.
Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo said that with the new
plants, Mexico's beer production will reach 10 billion liters a
year. Mexico is the world's sixth-largest beer producer and the
leading beer exporter with exports last year worth more than $1.6
billion.
Write to Anthony Harrup at anthony.harrup@wsj.com
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