Constellation Brands will report its fourth-quarter and full-year results tomorrow (9 April).
Here, just-drinks takes a look at the highs and lows for the company in the three months to the end of February.
- At the very start of Constellation’s fiscal fourth quarter in December, the company announced a switch of leadership at its North American wine unit.
Jay Wright became president of Constellation Wines North America, replacing José Fernandez who passed away in January.
- Also in December, the company was rocked by a lawsuit from joint venture partner Grupo Modelo. The Mexican brewer claimed that Constellation had failed to supply sufficient marketing funds for the 50-50 joint venture, which sells Modelo’s Corona beer in the US, a claim Constellation has rebuffed.
- In mid-January, Constellation saw its previously-announced sale of Gaymer Cider Co in the UK to C&C Group complete. Constellation received around GBP45m (US$75m) in cash for the divestment.
- Also in January, the firm extended portions of its senior credit facility and a long-term loan to help it pay down debt. Constellation extended the repayment date for US$650m of its revolving credit facility from 5 June 2011 to 5 June 2013, while also extending the repayment deadline for $300m of a $1.2bn loan, by two years to 5 June 2015.
- Then, in February, Constellation became embroiled in the fake Pinot Noir scandal in France, when it admitted that the offending wine merchant had sold wine to Constellation. The company said that it had bought Pinot Noir wine from the Sieur d’Arques wine merchant, which was one of 12 parties convicted for selling cheap, copycat wine at Pinot Noir prices.
- Finally, today (8 April), Constellation confirmed that talks over a possible merger of its Australian and UK businesses with Australian Vintage had failed to come to a conclusion. The talks, which opened in November, were subsequently halted, with both companies saying that they were going back to business as usual.
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