Heineken drastically scales back operations in Mexico amid coronavirus

Heineken has announced that it is suspending distribution in Mexico and reducing production operations “to a minimum”, in response to government orders aimed at curbing the spread of coronavirus.

The announcement, reported by Reuters, was prompted by the government’s decision to halt non-essential economic activity and the declaration of a national health emergency in Mexico on 30 March.

It followed news that Grupo Modelo, the brewer of Corona beer, is suspending production at its 11 Mexican breweries after the new government orders deemed its business activities non-essential.

On Twitter, the phrase “MexicoSinCerveza” – Mexico without beer – was trending on Friday, as the public reacted to the announcements by the brewers.

Heineken Mexico operates seven plants nationally and employs 16,000 workers.

In a statement, the company said that its distribution operations would be suspended after 1 April, “in full alignment with the recommendations indicated by our authorities”.

On the production side, Heineken Mexico said it would begin reducing operations “to a minimum … with the sole purpose of avoiding irreversible effects that could make it impossible to reactivate our economic activity”.

According to Reuters, Mexico has registered over 2,100 Covid-19 cases and 94 deaths as of Sunday.