Who owns CORONA?

CORONA is owned by

Corona was created in 1925 in the city of Mexico City, Mexico by Cervecería Modelo. The brewery was started that year by Pablo Díez Fernández, along with a group of 24 other investors. The brewery quickly expanded, and by World War II was selling beer to over 20 million Mexicans.

Corona was virtually unknown within the United States until 1981, when Mexican-born beer distributor Carlos Alvarez began making a push to gain prominence for Corona in Texas. He would hand deliver cases to bars around Austin, and casually leave half drunk bottles of Corona around the bar to give the impression that the beer was gaining popularity. The strategy worked – quickly Corona began to become more popular, and by the mid 1990’s it was the most popular imported beer in the United States.

The brand wanted to shake the impression that it was a low quality working-man’s beer, and so it hired “Parrothead” singer Jimmy Buffet as an ambassador for the brand. In doing so, Corona began to lean into a beach-bum, permanent vacation aesthetic that Corona has carried with it to this day. Buffet eventually realized the power of his endorsement, and later dropped his deal with Corona to create his own beer, now known as Land Shark Lager.

In 1994, the brewery went public, putting 13% of its shares on the Mexican Stock Exchange. In 2013, Grupo Modelo was acquired by Anheuser-Busch InBev, a multinational brewing company based in Leuven, Belgium. However, due to anti-trust concerns raised by the US Justice Department, rights to sell Modelo in the United States were sold to Constellation Brands. Constellation Brands brews this beer in Mexico, where they are prohibited from selling it, and imports it to the United States.