How is tequila production and Finos is impacted and adapting to the new reality

Luckily the tequila production industry was treated as an agro industry in the lockdown regulations, thus Finos and other tequila producers can continue operating. This also meant our suppliers were allowed to continue working and we are not facing any issues with limited availability of raw materials.

 

They do have to follow some specific restrictions, for example to impose social distancing between workers in agave fields and the maximum weight limit per truck is cut by half. We are strictly following all official guidelines issued by the local authorities to make sure that our employees stay safe and we can continue operations.

 

We have enforced mandatory hand washing, distance between employees, more frequent sanitization & cleaning of work stations, disinfection of footwear, mandatory use of face masks, monitoring of body temperature and all employees over 65 are asked to stay home while keeping their salary unchanged.

 

We are continuously reminding our employees of the importance of following these rules and there are reminders placed all over the factory. We must take these measures very seriously as there have been cases in the beer industry where production was shut down as they failed to follow the requirements of the maximum people allowed per shift.

 

Overall, while the total tequila production volume in Mexico is declining due to the pandemic, Finos is doing really well – we finished the first quarter of 2020 with a 30% increase in volume vs the previous year. April was another great month, with 146% increase compared to April in 2019.