Guadalajara Reporter

The Mexican Beer Association (Acermex), led by Guadalajara’s Minerva brewery, is lending its weight to the federal anti-monopoly agency’s ongoing investigation into the Mexican beer industry. Acermex complains that the country’s two biggest beer companies (Modelo and Femsa Cerveza) have exclusivity deals with 95 percent of Mexican restaurants and bars and that independent breweries have little chance of competing given the size of the beer giants.

“The exclusivity with one or the other brewery is a duopoly that forbids our entrance into the market as independent brewers,” Jesus Briseño of Acermex told local Spanish-language daily Publico. “In the United States there is a clear antimonopoly law that obliges restaurants and bars to sell products from at least two different companies and that has helped their independent beer industry grow.”

Briseño went on to explain that “one of the two groups go to the center of consumption and offer money or presents, depending on the size of the client with the condition that they only sell their beer.”

A visit to your local Oxxo helps clarify the situation. In Oxxos, only beers from Femsa are sold: Tecate, Sol, Dos Equis, Carta Blanca, Superior, Indio, Bohemia and Noche Buena can be found.

Recently purchased by Heineken, Femsa owns Oxxo so it’s no surprise that the selection of beers is limited to only their products.

The other big beer company Modelo (Corona, Corona Light, Negra Modelo, Modelo Especial, Estrella, Victoria, Leon, Montejo and Pacífico) is just as fervent as its competitor in seeking deals with shops and restaurants. It also has exclusivity with 7-11 stores.

Despite the many brick walls in its path, Guadalajara’s Minerva beer company says it is breaking sales records each month through targeting niche markets. “New tanks are being installed and two new ones are on their way from China,” said Briseño, who is also a director of Minerva.

A new bottling machine promises to increase capacity from 6,000 to 12,000 bottles a month.

In the future, the company hopes to move to a bigger location and build Latin America’s first sustainable brewery. The tentative plan is to locate it somewhere on the Ruta del Tequila (Tequila Route).