Constellation Brands Inc. (NYSE: STZ)

Constellation Brands is a leading producer and marketer of beer, wine, and spirits, with a portfolio anchored by its Mexican beer imports—Modelo Especial, Corona, and Pacifico. The beer business, operated under a perpetual license from AB InBev for the US market, has been one of the great growth stories in American consumer goods. Constellation also produces wines (Robert Mondavi, Kim Crawford) and spirits (Casa Noble tequila, High West whiskey).

Constellation earns revenue from the production, marketing, and distribution of alcoholic beverages, with the beer segment generating the vast majority of operating profit. The company's exclusive US rights to Modelo and Corona give it a structural advantage in the fastest-growing segment of the US beer market.

Marvin Sands founded Constellation in 1945 as a small wine producer in Canandaigua, New York. The transformative moment came in 2013 when Constellation acquired the US rights to Corona and Modelo from AB InBev as a condition of the Anheuser-Busch/Grupo Modelo merger. The company invested $5.6 billion in Canopy Growth, a Canadian cannabis company, starting in 2017—an investment that has been largely written off.