Grupo Modelo

Spanish immigrants led by Braulio Iriarte and Martín Oyamburu founded Grupo Modelo in Mexico City in 1925 and launched Corona that year; Negra Modelo followed as a draught beer. Modelo grew by buying regional brewers: Victoria came with the Toluca brewery in 1935, Pacífico of Mazatlán in 1954 and the Yucatán brewery of León and Montejo in 1979. AB InBev bought full control in 2013, and to satisfy US regulators it handed the US rights to Corona and the Modelo brands to Constellation Brands, which brews them for the United States in its own Mexican plants at Nava and Ciudad Obregón. Modelo runs 11 breweries in Mexico and holds about 57% of the Mexican market. The BJCP lists Corona Extra as an international pale lager; the company calls Victoria a Vienna lager and Negra Modelo a Munich dunkel. In 2016 Modelo took over the craft brands Cucapá, Tijuana, Mexicali and Bocanegra. In 2025, its centenary year, it said it would hand 20 million cubic metres of water concessions back to the state.