FEMSA completes investment in US cash and carry leader Jetro Restaurant Depot

MONTERREY, Mexico, Nov. 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Fomento Económico Mexicano, S.A.B. de C.V. ("FEMSA”) (NYSE: FMX; BMV: FEMSAUBD) announced today that it has signed definitive agreements and closed the transaction to acquire a minority stake in Jetro Restaurant Depot ("JRD”).  The transaction includes investment in the operating and real estate-holding entities of JRD.  This transaction was originally announced on September 26, 2019 with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between FEMSA and JRD. 

The agreements signed today also include the terms and conditions for a proposed Joint Venture of FEMSA and JRD to take JRD’s business model to Mexico and other Latin American markets.  Each partner would own 50% of the Joint Venture.

Jetro Restaurant Depot

JRD is a leader in the wholesale business-to-business cash and carry retail foodservice segment in the United States.  Founded in 1976, JRD today operates over 130 stores across the United States with two formats, Jetro Cash and Carry and Restaurant Depot. 

About FEMSA
FEMSA creates economic and social value through companies and institutions and strives to be the best employer and neighbor to the communities in which it operates. It participates in the retail industry through FEMSA Comercio, comprising a Proximity Division operating OXXO, a small-format store chain, a Health Division, which includes drugstores and related activities, and a Fuel Division, which operates the OXXO GAS chain of retail service stations. In the beverage industry, it participates through Coca-Cola FEMSA, a public bottler of Coca-Cola products; and in the beer industry, as a shareholder of HEINEKEN, a brewer with operations in over 70 countries. Additionally, through its Strategic Businesses unit, it provides logistics, point-of-sale refrigeration solutions and plastics solutions to FEMSA's business units and third-party clients. Through its business units, FEMSA has more than 295,000 employees in 13 countries. FEMSA is a member of the Dow Jones Sustainability MILA Pacific Alliance, the FTSE4Good Emerging Index and the Mexican Stock Exchange Sustainability Index, among other indexes that evaluate is sustainability performance.