Strong dollar is no buzz kill for Constellation Brands

Constellation Brands (STZ) is hoping to keep the momentum in its Mexican beer business rolling into the summer selling season with its ‘Year of the Can’ campaign.

Bob Ryder, the company’s Chief Financial Officer said they are making significant investments on its packaging to increase awareness and consumption. Since the can can go where glass bottles are not be permitted like parks and beaches for the summer months.

The maker of beer, wine and spirits wants to promote one its strongest visual brands – Corona. The company finished fiscal 2015 strong fueled by its Mexican beer business.

The better-than-expected results helped tap the company’s first ever dividend payout, since the company went public in 1973. And according to Ryder, shareholders may not have to wait another 42 years, “we started our dividend on the lower end of what we could pay because our debt leverage is still a little bit higher than we would like it to be but there’s a lot of room to grow the dividend with earnings going forward and we anticipate earnings double digits for the next few years and we can actually increase the payouts ratio, should we see a fit to do so.”

Being a net importer, the strong dollar helps Constellation Brands, unlike its much larger competitors like Anheuser-Busch InBev NV (BUD) which reported the stronger greenback hurt its Q1 sales.

Ryder believes the company even has products to offer the healthier lifestyles trend that’s taking over the nation’s food and beverage aisles, “we have products consumers can enjoy, no matter what the health aspects of it is” even noting “beer is a natural product.”

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