Guadalajara Reporter

Tequila may be Mexico’s national drink, but if the anticipated sale of Jose Cuervo to British multinational Diageo goes through, not one of the country’s major tequila companies will remain in Mexican hands.

Diageo, which owns Smirnoff, Johnnie Walker, Baileys and Guinness, already has an international distribution deal with Cuervo and is now looking to acquire ownership of both the Cuervo and 1800 brands owned by Mexico’s Beckmann family since their foundation over 200 years ago.

Takeover talks are ongoing, but the deal for Cuervo – the world’s largest tequila producer – is reportedly worth up to 3.4 billion dollars. There is an air of inevitability about the sale, with this being the last big tequila producer to fall from family hands into the arms of a foreign corporation.

“All the world’s major brands are controlled by the five biggest multinational consortiums,” says Luis Margain Sainz, a lawyer with 42 years of experience in the tequila industry. “First they associate with a company, then they control it, then they expand it and finally they buy it out.”

Margain represents 18 small and medium tequila distilleries, the biggest of which is Productos Finos de Agave, and he has sat on the board of directors of the Tequila Regulatory Commission, as well as working with the Chamber of Commerce of Tequila.

*Restricted Article* - To view rest of this content, please login or register..