Constellation Brands, Inc. (CBI) is among the world’s top manufacturers and marketers of spirits, wine, and beer, operating in the U.S., Mexico, Canada, New Zealand, and Italy. As the third largest beer company in the U.S.,
its well-known beer lines, such as Corona, Modelo, and Pacifico, are among the nation’s fastest-growing brands. But before 2013, CBI was strictly an importer, not a producer, and had never brewed a single bottle of beer.
That year, the company agreed to acquire from Grupo Modelo its U.S. brand rights and massive Nava brewery in Mexico. So, with the stroke of a pen, CBI found itself in the challenging world of large-scale beer brewing and bottling operations. Since then, the Nava brewery has become the world’s largest of its kind with an annual production capacity today of nearly 27.5
million hectoliters. Its operations cover 885 acres near Piedras Negras, Mexico, just a few miles from the U.S. border. Rail lines bring in raw materials, mostly rice, barley malt, and corn grits, where they are mixed with water. After brewing, sixteen packaging lines put the beer in bottles,
cans, and kegs to be palletized and loaded back on trains that take them to market.
Their challenge was to expand plant capacity 250 percent in just three years. To find out how they did it with Siemens’ SCALANCE Solutions, click here.
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