in 2022 the price of beer is set to rise for a rather unusual reason: on the market, it seems, there is little brown glass. This scarcity, together with the general increase in commodity prices, has prompted prudence Constellation Brands – American alcohol giant that produces, among other things, beer Corona. In fact, the group has chosen to put its hands forward, announcing that this year beer inflation will be higher than usual 1-2%.
Garth Hankinson, chief financial officer of Constellation Brands, explained that in the long term the operating margins for the beer business will remain between 39% and 40%, but added that in the next fiscal year they risk being lower, in part because ofincrease in the price of commodities.
Since the pandemic began, the shortage of glass is not the first difficulty faced by brewers, who complained about the shortage of aluminum cans last year. Today, however, the problems do not concern all the glass, but only the brown one (which is not used for the Corona, sold in transparent bottles and very well known in Italy as well).
MKM Partners analyst Bill Kirk wrote in a November report that Constellation Brands' hardest-hit brand is expected to be Pacific, but Modelo Negra beers also come in brown glass. In any case, the greatest danger for the group is that in the future the lack of glass on the market will become so serious as to limit sales of the Corona as well.
Among the reasons that will lead to an increase in the price of beer, the company also mentions the increase in transport and storage costs, the two main changes in the supply chain caused by the pandemic.
During the last session on Wall Street the shares of Constellation Brands lost 3,8%. The decline comes after a surge of 12 percentage points recorded in the last 12 months, however against the +18% achieved in the same period by the group's reference index, the S&P 500 Consumer Staples.
