Tequila giant Becle quadruples profit even as demand dries up
Net profit hit 2.0 billion pesos ($106.6 million), above the 1.8 billion pesos estimated by analysts polled by LSEG, while revenues ticked up 2.8% to 11.5 billion pesos, a touch below analysts' forecast of 11.7 billion pesos.
Stripping out the effects of currency fluctuations, profits rose 22% while net sales fell 6%, as volumes of liquor sales fell in all of Becle's operating markets except its home base of Mexico.
Jose Cuervo maker Becle generates close to 60% of its net sales in the U.S. and Canada - where volumes dipped 7% in the three months through June - while a quarter comes from Mexico, where volumes increased 7%.
In the rest of the world, volumes shrank 11%.
Becle said the drop in sales in North America reflected Canadian retailers' limiting U.S.-related purchases while in the rest of the world inventories remained high.
"We continue to operate in a volatile and competitive global environment," Becle said in a statement. It said it was seeing early signs of improvement in some markets and working toward a better balance between shipments and depletions.
Becle makes the bulk of its income from tequilas but also produces a range of spirits such as Creyente mezcal, Stranahan's whiskey, Kraken rum and Boodles gin.
Becle said its profit was boosted by 557 million pesos in foreign-exchange gains, as it reversed a more than 1.3-billion-peso net financial loss recorded a year earlier.
The Mexican peso weakened some 2.6% to the U.S. dollar in the 12 months through the end of June, boosting peso-denominated earnings from the United States.
While the U.S. has threatened fresh tariffs against Mexico, its top trade partner, from August 1, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on Sunday signaled that goods covered by the United States-Mexico-Canada free trade pact - such as tequila - should remain exempt, opens new tab.
The United States imported $5.3 billion of tequila in 2024, according to the U.S. Distilled Spirits Council, opens new tab, up more than 14% in a year and surpassing its whiskey, gin, rum, brandy and vodka imports combined.
($1 = 18.7654 pesos at end-June)
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