The start of a new year can be quite exhilarating. And for Beverage Industry and Beverage Marketing Corporation (BMC), 2015 looks to be a very exciting year.

Constellation Brands Inc., Victor, N.Y., reported net sales for the 2014 fiscal year were more than $4.8 billion, a 74 percent increase, following its acquisition of the Grupo Modelo U.S. beer business.

Crown Imports LLC, a Chicago-based division of Constellation Brands, announced that its Corona Light brand will expand on draft in more than 35 U.S. markets, and its Corona Extra brand will make its debut on draft in three test markets.

Crown Imports LLC, a division of Constellation Brands, introduced Modelo Especial Chelada beer.

Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev), Leuven, Belgium, and Constellation Brands Inc., Victor, N.Y., announced a revised agreement that establishes Chicago-based Crown Imports as the No. 3 producer and marketer of beer in the United States through a complete divestiture of Grupo Modelo’s U.S. business.

On Jan. 31, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Washington, D.C., filed a civil antitrust lawsuit challenging Leuven, Belgium-based Anheuser-Busch InBev’s (AB InBev) proposed acquisition of total ownership and control of Grupo Modelo, Mexico City. 

Modelo Especial, a brand imported by Crown Imports LLC, Chicago, capped off 2012 with more than 43 million cases in annual depletions, making it the third import beer to achieve 40 million cases sold in one calendar year, the company says.

Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev), Leuven, Belgium, will acquire the remaining stake in Grupo Modelo, Mexico City, for $20.1 billion. The combined company would lead the global beer industry with roughly 400 million hectoliters of beer volume annually and 2012 estimated revenues of $47 billion, AB InBev noted in a statement. Tangentially, Constellation Brands Inc., Victor, N.Y., which in a joint venture with Grupo Modelo currently owns 50 percent of Crown Imports LLC, Chicago, signed an agreement with AB InBev to purchase the remaining 50 percent interest in Crown for $1.85 billion.

Crown Imports’ portfolio of eight brands captures approximately 42 percent of the volume of the import beer market in the United States, a figure that the Chicago-based company is intent on increasing. In fact, the joint venture between Mexico’s Grupo Modelo, S.A. de C.V. and Constellation Brands Inc., Victor, N.Y., has a goal of becoming the third major U.S. beer company occupying 20 percent per dollar market share.