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.
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History
The Cuauhtémoc brewery was founded in Monterrey in 1890 by Don Isaac Garza, José Calderón, José A. Muguerza, Francisco G. Sada, Josph M. Schnaider and Francisco Sada, 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 best known CEO, Eugenio Garza Sada, was assassinated in 1973 in an attempt of kidnapping by mexican left-wing guerrillas. As a result, Visa, the Cerveceria Cuauthtemoc Moctezuma's holding, was split into four units: Visa, Grupo Industrial Alfa, Fomento de Industria y Comercio, (renamed as Vitro), and Cydsa, a chemicals complex. Alfa received Hylsa, 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. 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 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.
Breweries
The company also operates plants in Tecate, Navojoa, Guadalajara, Toluca and Orizaba. 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 draft Carta Blanca. The Garden features old brewery machines and a century old beer truck. The gardens hours are everyday from 10:00 to 18:00 hrs.
Beers
The company produces a range of pale and dark lagers, including: Bohemia, Noche Buena and Kloster.
- Superior
- Meant to be the "Superior" beer.
- Carta Blanca
- The brewery's original premium beer. Carta Blanca takes its name from the French "carte blanche". Carta Blanca beer is meant as a token of thanks and respect to customers.
- Sol
- Introduced in the 1890s, originally called El Sol. The logo and presentation has not been changed.
- Indio
- The beer was originally named "Cerveza Cuauhtémoc" however many people simply asked for an "Indio" because of the picture of the Indian on the clay bottle.[1]
Dos Equis
Dos Equis was first crafted in Mexico by the German brewmaster Wilhelm Hasse in 1897. Originally called "Siglo XX" ("20th century"), the brand was named to commemorate the arrival of the new century; the bottles were marked with the Roman numerals "XX", or "Dos Equis". It is currently available in two varieties: Dos Equis Especial (green bottle) is a pale lager, whereas Dos Equis Ámbar (brown bottle) is a Vienna-style amber lager which was first exported to the United States in 1973.
Tecate
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.
