Trump's deportations are hurting Constellation Brands' beer sales

Constellation Brands’ beer sales fell 2% in its latest quarter as President Donald Trump’s deportations and consumers’ broader economic fears weighed on demand.

In April, Constellation CEO Bill Newlands said that Hispanic consumers are spending less due to their concerns about Trump’s hard-line immigration policy and possible job losses in industries with high Latino employment bases. During Wednesday’s earnings conference call, Newlands acknowledged that raids by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement were making it difficult to predict consumer behavior moving forward, although he demurred about tying the beer division’s slowdown to Hispanic shoppers specifically during the company’s fiscal first-quarter call.

“When you see a fair amount of change, both Hispanic and non-Hispanic consumers are concerned about inflation and about cost structure,” Newlands told analysts.

Hispanic consumers are a core part of Constellation’s customer base. The brewer, which owns Modelo, Corona and Pacifico, says that roughly half of its beer sales come from Latinos in the U.S.

Constellation’s earnings and revenue for the quarter ended May 31 fell short of Wall Street’s estimates, hurt by weaker beer demand and higher aluminum costs from Trump’s tariffs. Still, the company reiterated its full-year outlook, signaling confidence that it can achieve its financial targets despite economic uncertainty.

Constellation isn’t the only packaged food and beverage company to report weaker demand from Hispanic consumers. Last quarter, Coca-Cola and Colgate-Palmolive were also among the companies that tied a slowdown in U.S. sales to a pullback by Hispanic shoppers.