Becle, the Mexican group behind Jose Cuervo, 1800, Maestro Dobel, Bushmills and Kraken, reported second-quarter results on 28 July 2026 showing net sales down 13.9% year on year to MXN9.865bn, equivalent to about US$564.5m. On a constant currency basis the decline was 5.8%, with the company attributing the gap to the Mexican peso appreciating against the US dollar and to an unfavourable geographic mix. Gross profit fell 21.2% to MXN4.973bn, roughly US$284.5m. Total volumes fell 6.7% to six million nine-litre cases, or 3.4% excluding the B:oost energy drink brand the company divested last year.

Asked whether tequila inventories and demand in the United States were normalising, Becle declined to say so. Mauricio Vergara Herrera, the company's managing director for the US and Canada, told Just Drinks that tequila still performs better than the industry in general terms but that he would not dare to say at this point that it is already stabilising. The company said it continues to see volatility in the market. Separately, in its results commentary, Becle described its US and Canada volume decline of 8.7% in the quarter as a marked sequential improvement, as the distributor transition progressed and inventory levels across the system continued to normalise.

Two different meanings of the word normalisation

The tension in Becle's messaging is not evasion, it is precision. There are two distinct processes running at once and only one of them is visibly improving. The first is destocking: distributors and retailers working down inventory built during the boom. That is a mechanical adjustment with a finite endpoint, and Becle says it is progressing. The second is underlying consumer demand, which is what determines the level the business settles at once destocking finishes. Nothing in the quarter tells you where that level is.

This is why a sequential improvement in a decline is not a recovery. Q2's 13.9% sales fall followed a 23.1% fall in Q1, when total sales came in at MXN7.4bn. The rate of decline halved. The direction did not change. A company that mistakes the first for the second reinvests into a market that is still shrinking, and Becle appears to be deliberately avoiding that call.

The distributor variable is doing a lot of the work

In February 2026 Becle ended its partnership with Republic National Distributing Company across all US and Canadian markets except New Mexico and Georgia. That transition is the largest single distortion in the year-on-year comparisons: when a supplier changes route to market, shipments stop while the new network builds inventory, then restart, and neither the trough nor the rebound reflects consumer demand. RNDC subsequently entered Chapter 11 proceedings in late July 2026. Becle's spirits arm, Proximo Spirits, was among RNDC's larger competitors in the US market.

The practical consequence is that Becle's US numbers will remain hard to read for at least two more quarters. Any improvement reported for Q3 or Q4 will contain an unknown mix of genuine demand and pipeline refill at the new distributors. Investors and trade buyers should treat depletion data, not shipment data, as the honest series here.

What the brand-level mix shows

Inside the portfolio, the picture is not uniform. Jose Cuervo accounted for 36% of Q2 volume with a 4.7% decline. The other tequilas, principally 1800 and Maestro Dobel, made up 25.5% of volume and grew 2.5%. Other spirits including Bushmills and Kraken were 16.8% of volume and fell 6.8%. Mexico volumes fell 7.8% on the B:oost divestment but organic growth was 5.5%, consistent with IWSR's finding that the Mexican domestic market has returned to modest growth. Rest of world volumes grew 3.5% while net sales there fell 14.6% organically, a combination that usually indicates price and mix erosion rather than lost consumers.

The pattern across the group is the same one visible in the wider US category: flagship mainstream volume under pressure, the tier immediately above it holding or growing, and value per case falling faster than cases. Becle's full-year 2025 revenue was down 2%, so the 2026 declines represent a material deterioration rather than a continuation.

What we are watching

Becle's Q3 2026 report, and specifically whether the US and Canada volume decline narrows from 8.7% and whether the company revises its language on stabilisation. Constant currency net sales rather than reported, given how much the peso is contributing to the headline. Whether Becle discloses depletion figures separately from shipments during the distributor rebuild. The RNDC Chapter 11 docket, for how quickly the estate resolves supplier claims. And IWSR or NIQ data on Mexican domestic tequila through the World Cup period, which is where Becle's only organic growth currently sits.