Anheuser-Busch InBev Unit to Invest $325 Million in Mexican Plants

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 [e-mail]

Access Investor Kit for Anheuser-Busch InBev SA

Visit http://www.companyspotlight.com/partner?cp_code=P479&isin=BE0003793107

Access Investor Kit for Grupo Modelo SAB de CV

Visit http://www.companyspotlight.com/partner?cp_code=P479&isin=MXP4833F1044

Access Investor Kit for Anheuser-Busch InBev SA

Visit http://www.companyspotlight.com/partner?cp_code=P479&isin=US03524A1088

Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires