Pursuits
Patron’s Socially Distanced Tequila Distillery Can’t Keep Up
- Pandemic boosts demand as virus measures crimp factory output
- Ten U.S. states are running out of the Mexican liquor brand
Patron Spirits Co. brand Silver Tequila at the distillery in Atotonilco El Alto, Jalisco, Mexico.
Photographer: Hector Guerrero/Bloomberg“Handcrafted” isn’t providing the marketing advantage it used to before the coronavirus pandemic -- at least when it comes to one of the world’s best-selling brands of tequila.
Chronic shortages of Patron, a liquor made in Mexico, will probably continue well into next year as the brand’s slow, painstaking production goes up against soaring demand for booze with more people staying home to drink, said Adrian Parker, vice president of marketing for Patron Spirits International AG, which Bacardi Ltd. bought for $5.1 billion in 2018.