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Sol (beer) |
Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma Brewery (Cervecería Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma) is a major Mexican brewery based in Monterrey, Nuevo León, founded in 1890. It is a subsidiary of FEMSA, the largest beverage company in Mexico.
The company operates brewing plants in Monterrey, Tecate, Navojoa, Guadalajara, Toluca, Orizaba and in 2010 one in Chihuahua, producing the Dos Equis, Sol, Bohemia, Superior, Carta Blanca, Nochebuena and Tecate brands among others. It has an annual production of 660 million liters (175 million gallons).
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The Cuauhtémoc brewery was founded in Monterrey in 1890 by Don Isaac Garza, José Calderón, José A. Muguerza, Francisco G. Sada, Joseph M. Schnaider, Wilhelm Hasse, with capital of 150,000 pesos, starting with the Carta Blanca brand. Cuauhtémoc brewery produced its first beer barrel in 1893 and won first prize in the Chicago and Paris world fairs.
In 1909 Cerveceria Cuauhtemoc had expanded vertically. To provide glass bottles, in 1909, was founded Vidrios y Cristales de Monterrey S.A., later Vidriera Monterrey, S.A. In order to produce boxes, bottle caps, and packaging materials, in 1900 Fabricas de Carton Monterrey.
During the Mexican Revolution, its original founders backed Victoriano Huerta. As consequence his rival Venustiano Carranza seized the brewery and the founder's families fled to Texas. They got the brewery back through the intervention of U.S. and Russian diplomats.
The Sociedad Cuauhtemoc was founded in 1918 to provide medical and educative services to the worker's families, the final objective was to provide a welfare system to avoid strikes. The working day was reduced from 12 to nine hours in 1907.
The vertical integration continued and Vitro, a glass company, and Titán, the cardboard box company. In 1929, Malta, S.A. was established to produce malt for the brewery.
By 1936 the holdings of the Garza and Sada families and their associates had been divided into two groups: the Cuauhtemoc (brewery) group and the Vidriera (glass) group. In that year the family's holdings were reorganized, with Valores Industriales S.A. (Visa) created as a holding company controlling the majority of shares of the firms formerly held by Cuauhtemoc, especially Cerveceria Cuauhtemoc and Famosa.
Cerveceria Cuauhtemoc Moctezuma was headed by the two Garza Sada brothers,Eugenio Garza Sada, was assassinated in 1973 in a kidnapping attempt by Mexican left-wing guerrillas.and Roberto Garza Sada, Visa, the Cerveceria Cuauthtemoc Moctezuma's holding, was split into two units: Visa, Grupo Industrial Alfa. Alfa received Hylsa and cash while Visa retained the brewery business and its stake in the Banco de Londres and its affiliated institutions. Eugenio Garza Laguera, a son of Eugenio Garza Sada, was named CEO of Cerveceria Cuauhtemoc Moctezuma.and Bernardo Garza Sada a son of Roberto Garza Sada was named CEO of Alfa.
When oil prices fell in 1981, Mexico's economic boom, financed with borrowed money, came to a screeching halt. Visa found itself more than $1 billion in debt the following year, and the federal government nationalized Banca Serfin--the nation's third-largest bank--in which Visa held a 77 percent stake. The nondeposit banks and associated financial companies in Grupo Financiero Serfin, not nationalized, were reorganized into a new financial-services group called Valores de Monterrey (Vamsa). Vamsa's life-insurance subsidiary, Seguros Monterrey, was the largest in Mexico.
Adding to Visa's problems was dissatisfaction within the extended family. Javier Garza Calderon, who owned 45 percent of the holding company, tried unsuccessfully to wrest Visa from Eugenio, David, and Alejandro Garza Laguera, who controlled the rest. He filed several suits charging Eugenio with mishandling the administration of the conglomerate but was ultimately unsuccessful in winning control. In 1991 Garza Calderon's father, Javier Garza Sepulveda, tried to gain control of Visa through his Grupo Center. He also failed but made a big profit by selling his family's stock back to Visa for $428 million.
With the integration of the Moctezuma brewery in 1985, the brands XX, Superior, Sol and Noche Buena were added to the brands Carta Blanca, Tecate, Bohemia and Indio.
In 1943, company executive Eugenio Garza Sada with his brother and other prominent people founded the ITESM, and in 1973, the Mexican Professional Baseball Hall of Fame was opened at the site of the company headquarters.
In 1994 it sold a 22 percent share of Femsa's beer business to John Labatt Ltd. of Canada and signed an agreement with Labatt to associate their respective companies in the United States.
The company operates plants in Monterrey, Tecate, Navojoa, Guadalajara, Toluca, Orizaba and for 2010 one in Chihuahua.
The company has an annual production of 660 million liters (175 million gallons).
The Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma Brewery can be visited. Hours are Monday through Friday from 9:00 to 17:00 and Saturday from 9:00 to 14:00. Tours are available free of charge and are offered in both English and Spanish.
The Brewery has a beer garden which offers a free glass of Bohemia, Dos Equis or Carta Blanca. The Garden features old brewery machines and a century-old beer truck. The garden's hours are every day from 10:00 to 18:00 hrs.
The company produces a range of pale and dark lagers, including Bohemia, Noche Buena and Sito de Kaiser. The latter is not yet imported into the US market.
Dos Equis is a Mexican beer that was originally brewed by the German brewer Wilhelm Hasse in 1897. The brand was named "Siglo XX" ("20th century") to commemorate the arrival of the new century, and the bottles were marked with the Roman numerals "XX", or "Dos Equis" (two Xs).
The main brand Dos Equis XX Special Lager is a 4.45% abv pale lager sold in green bottles.1 Dos Equis XX Amber is a 4.7% Vienna-style amber lager sold in brown bottles,2 and was first exported to the United States in 1973.3
In 2007, Dos Equis inaugurated its "most interesting man in the world" advertising campaign. The television advertisements feature a bearded, debonair, Argentinian or Mexican gentlemen in his 50s or 60s (portrayed by actor Jonathan Goldsmith). In the television advertisements, while vaguely Spanish music plays in the background, a montage of daring exploits involving "the most interesting man" ("his beard has experienced more than other mens' entire bodies") when he was younger are displayed. The younger version of the most interesting man in the world looks very similar to Fidel Castro. While the precise settings are never revealed, at various points in various commercials, he frees an angry bear from a painful-looking bear trap; shoots amazing pool before an Indian audience; catches a marlin while cavorting in a Hemingway-esque scene with a beautiful, perhaps Cuban, young woman; wins an arm-wrestling match in a South American setting ("He's a lover, not a fighter, but he's also a fighter, so don't get any ideas"); surfs the killer wave; and bench presses two East Asian young women in a casino setting, each woman being seated in a chair. At the end of the advertisement, the interesting man says, "I don't always drink beer, but when I do, I prefer Dos Equis." Each commercial ends with a signature sign-off: "Stay thirsty, my friends."34
Tecate and Tecate Light are popular Mexican beers named after the city of Tecate, Baja California, where they were first produced. Originally brewed by a local company, Tecate was acquired by Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma in 1955. Tecate is sold in both distinctive red aluminium tins and in twist-top bottles. Tecate Light was launched in 1992 by Ing. Hector Emilio Ayala, who was the project manager.
In the 2008 film Hellboy II: The Golden Army, the title character is frequently seen drinking Tecate.5
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