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Company: Crown Imports, LLC, Chicago, IL
Company Description: Crown Imports LLC is a joint venture that imports, distributes and markets the Modelo portfolio and other fine beer brands across the entire U.S. The Crown portfolio includes Corona Extra, the #1 imported beer in the U.S. and #5 beer overall, Corona Light, Modelo Especial, Negra Modelo, Pacifico, Victoria, St. Pauli Girl and the Tsingtao beer brands.
Nomination Category: Sales Awards Department Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Sales Department of the Year - All Other Industries

Nomination Title: Crown Imports, LLC.

Tell the story about what this nominated department achieved since the beginning of July 2010 (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

This is an honorary nomination as chosen by the Stevie Awards.

Crown Imports is a 50-50 joint venture between Grupo Modelo, and Constellation
Brands. After the joint venture, it became clear that regional sales and
marketing efforts were overlapping, not cost effective, and confusing customers.
The company unified its sales and marketing efforts into one national group with
a diversified brand strategy and has seen remarkable growth.

ACHIEVEMENTS

• With a more focused set of brands and simpler internal structure, Crown moved
from multiple distributors per state to working with one exclusive distributor
in the markets where it made sense. These efforts better position us to leverage
our scale and better align with category growth in the US.

• With a new go-to-market model and consolidated sales force, Crown gained
better alignment with more than 1,000 distributor sales people who are focused
exclusively on our brands, better execution in the marketplace. These efforts
have helped to drive better depletion and margin results. Source: Company
Statements

What Constellation Brands Says:

• Constellation's president and CEO, Rob Sands, "We believe focused marketing
efforts at Crown are driving momentum in the beer business," just - drinks
global news Bromsgrove 30 June 2011.

• Crown Imports has six of the top 25 imported beer brands. Crown's business
generates volume of more than 150 million cases a year led...We're the leading
beer importer in the US through Crown Imports. BOB RYDER, EVP AND CFO,
CONSTELLATION BRANDS, INC. September 2011

What Modelo Says:

• In calendar 2010 and '11, Crown's marketplace performance has been strong,
outperforming the import and the total beer categories Modelo said Crown
Imports' results "continued to outperform the import category due to the strong
performance of our brands at the final consumer level."

• The introduction of the Victoria brand and Corona Familiar package into the US
continues to expand after its initial launch in Chicago and parts of Texas and
Colorado. Victoria is Mexico's oldest beer brand. Company Statement July 2011

• According to the most recent IRI retail data, Crown outperformed both the
total US beer industry and the import category in the last 4, 13, and 52 weeks
ending October 2, 2011, said EMILIO FULLAONDO, CFO, GRUPO MODELO SAB DE CV In
October 2011.

Results

• Crown Imports is named to Advertising Age’s Marketer A-List in November 2011.
“The importer's sales to retailers were up 5% through September, compared to a
roughly 2% decline for the overall beer category, according to Beer Marketer's
Insights” 2011 MARKETER A-LIST. Advertising Age, 00018899, 11/7/2011

MOVING FORWARD

• Bruce Jacobson, executive vice president of national sales, says the
consolidation was advantageous for the sales organization. “Qwest for the Crown”
Beverage Industry | NOVEMBER 2011

• These efforts better position Crown Imports LLC to leverage scale and better
align with category growth in the US.

List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:

http://www.crownimportsllc.com/ourbrands/ourbrands.htm

http://adage.com/article/special-report-marketer-alist/marketer-a-list-crown-imports/230827/

Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the leader(s) of the nominated sales organization:

Bruce Jacobson is Executive Vice President Sales

Jim Sabia is the Chief Marketing Officer

VP’s of Sales include:
James O'Neil, Kurt Kitchell , Timm Amundson, Marty Fedenko

Sales and Marketing Executives are Michelle Saldana and Jack Kavanagh