Becle, the world's largest tequila maker and the company behind José Cuervo, 1800, Maestro Dobel, and Gran Centenario, posted a 67 percent first-quarter net-profit slump to MXN 388.2 million ($21.7 million) on revenues down 23 percent, with U.S. and Canada sales falling 36.6 percent organically and volumes dropping 13 percent overall and 24 percent in North America — dragged by the company's January exit from Republic National Distributing Company in nearly all U.S. markets. [1] [2]

Tuesday's paper carried the Day 2 retail-resurgence frame behind the margarita map, and today's Day 4 receipt is the producer side of that same curve: the flagship José Cuervo brand fell 25.7 percent in Q1 and the 1800-anchored "other tequilas" basket fell 17.5 percent, with depletions data showing Cuervo, 1800, Maestro Dobel, and Gran Coramino each tracking a 2025 category that absorbed the post-premium correction. [3]

Tequila is one of the only spirit categories pegged for 2026 growth, near 1 percent against a 4 percent overall liquor decline. [1] The Cinco cultural-register cycle is what tests whether the producer-side reset compounds with the consumer-side additive-free move; Day 4's read is that the holiday's largest pourer hit it mid-restructure, not on a tailwind.

-- NORA WHITFIELD, Chicago