Turning beer into hope
Corona Beer stands up to Corona Virus
Grupo Modelo converted alcohol from its Corona Cero beer into antibacterial gel. They delivered 90 thousand liters in the first 48 hours of the pandemic in Mexico.
We managed to deliver 300 thousand 300 milliliter bottles to IMSS in Mexico in only 48 hours. Even the Guinness records people expected us to set a record, but we were not interested in that. “We wanted to help our country,” said Fernando Morales, Director of Communications and Identity at Grupo Modelo.
No longer had the pandemic arrived in Mexico that we realized it would be a critical time for the country. We approached the authorities determined to help in the best possible way. We were not interested in marketing, but clearly resolved to make a real impact on our society during this crisis.
We are beer experts. We understand the importance of hygiene and that this and social distancing are very important tools to prevent the virus from spreading. We knew there was a shortage of antibacterial gel with a 70 percent concentration, and we realized we had enough alcohol to convert it into this important gel.
Where does our alcohol come from?
All beers are produced in a similar way in all our plants, but we also have Corona Cero, a non-alcoholic beer that runs through the regular process but, at a certain point, has the alcohol removed. We normally sell this alcohol or use it in standard processes in our own plants. This time we were determined to turn it into gel.
Fortunately, we had a supply of alcohol at our plant in Tuxtepec, Oaxaca. This we transported to a laboratory in the State of México, and in record time we had the 300 thousand bottles of gel, each containing 300 milliliters, that makes 90 thousand liters overall, moe than 95,000 quarts. This was delivered to the IMSS Foundation (Social Security), the entity responsible for delivering it to public sector hospitals.
Corona and the virus
In Mexico, we are known for our dark humor, so there were a lot of memes and jokes about Corona. Unfortunately, however, at the beginning of the pandemia, there was misinformation in some parts of the US, and by some individuals that had a damaging effect. Now it is clear that Corona beer is not related to the COVID-19 virus, something Morales has helped make clear.
5 de mayo
Corona is proud to be part of the Mexican identity. It’s the world’s best selling beer, according to the Communications Director at Grupo Modelo. “One out of four bottles of beer sold in the world, is a Corona, so, due to the number of Mexican people in the U.S., this makes Corona even more important for the 5 de Mayo celebration, partly because it is an ambassador of Mexican tradition and culture, a way of life, a representation of expats living away from Mexico. One might say it is Mexico in a bottle”.