Constellation Brands (STZ) Risk Analysis

We have incurred indebtedness to finance investments and acquisitions, refinance other indebtedness, fund beer operations capacity additions and other capital expenditures, pay cash dividends, repurchase shares of our common stock, and fund other general corporate purposes, including working capital. In the future, we may continue to incur indebtedness for any or all of these activities. We are exposed to risks associated with interest rate fluctuations, including for our variable interest rate debt, and disruption or volatility in the credit markets. The current interest rate environment is elevated relative to the interest rates on certain of our outstanding indebtedness that will be maturing over the next several years. If we experience reduced access to credit or higher future interest rates to refinance our maturing indebtedness, to incur additional indebtedness, or on our variable interest rate exposures, it could increase our overall interest expense and adversely affect our liquidity and capital resources. In addition, our business may not generate sufficient cash flow from operations to meet all our debt service requirements, return value to stockholders such as through payment of dividends or repurchases of shares of our common stock, achieve or maintain our target comparable net leverage ratio, and fund our general corporate and capital requirements. Interest rate fluctuations and credit market disruption or volatility may also impact our consumers, Customers, and/or suppliers which could, in turn, adversely effect our business, liquidity, financial condition, and/or results of operations. Our current and future debt service obligations and covenants could have important consequences. These consequences include, or may include, the following: - our ability to obtain financing for future working capital needs, investments, acquisitions, or other purposes may be limited;- our funds available for operations, capacity additions, dividends or other distributions, or share repurchases may be reduced because we dedicate a significant portion of our cash flow from operations to the payment of principal and interest on our indebtedness;- our ability to conduct our business could be limited by restrictive covenants; and - our vulnerability to adverse economic conditions may be greater than less leveraged competitors and, thus, our ability to withstand competitive pressures may be limited. Additionally, any failure to meet required payments on our debt, or failure to comply with any covenants in the instruments governing our debt, could result in an event of default under the terms of those instruments and a downgrade to our credit ratings. A downgrade to our credit ratings for any of these or other reasons would increase our borrowing costs and could affect our ability to issue commercial paper or negatively impact the terms under which we refinance our debt. Certain of our debt facilities also contain change of control provisions which, if triggered, may result in an acceleration of our obligation to repay the debt. In addition, certain of our debt and derivative financial instruments have, or in the future could have, interest rates that are tied to reference rates, such as SOFR. The volatility and availability of such reference rates, including establishment of alternative reference rates, is out of our control. Changes to or the unavailability of such rates or the manner for calculation of such reference rates could result in increases to the cost of our debt. In addition, our 2025 Credit Agreement (i) restricts repayment of the loans under the credit agreement with proceeds derived, directly or indirectly, from Canopy prior to the Conversion Time, (ii) restricts the use of proceeds from the loans under our credit agreement, directly or indirectly, for any investment in, transaction with, or to fund the activities of or business with Canopy prior to the Conversion Time, and (iii) provides that we will not convert any of our outstanding Exchangeable Shares for Canopy common shares or own any Canopy common shares until the Conversion Time. If we do not comply with the obligations contained in our senior credit facility, our existing or future indentures, or other loan agreements, we could be in default under such debt facilities or agreements. In such an event, the holders of our debt could elect to declare as due and payable all amounts outstanding under those instruments. An event of default could also result in events of default under other debt facilities or agreements that contain cross-acceleration or cross-default provisions, which could permit counterparties thereunder to exercise remedies. If that occurred, we might not have available funds to satisfy our repayment obligations.

From time to time, we acquire businesses, assets, or securities of companies that we believe will provide a strategic fit with our business. We integrate acquired businesses with our existing operations; our overall internal control over financial reporting processes; and our financial, operations, and information systems. If the financial performance of our business, as supplemented by the assets and businesses acquired, does not meet our expectations, it may make it more difficult for us to service our debt obligations and our results of operations may fail to meet market expectations or otherwise be adversely affected. We may not effectively assimilate the business or product offerings of acquired companies into our business or within the anticipated costs or timeframes, retain key Customers and suppliers or key employees of acquired businesses, or successfully implement our business plan for the combined business. In addition, our final determinations and appraisals of the estimated fair value of assets acquired and liabilities assumed in our acquisitions may vary materially from earlier estimates and we may fail to fully realize anticipated cost savings, growth opportunities, or other potential synergies. The fair value of acquired businesses or investments may not remain constant. We also divest businesses, assets, or securities of companies from time to time, including those that we believe no longer provide a strategic fit with our business, such as the 2025 Wine Divestitures. We have provided and, in the future, may provide various indemnifications in connection with divestitures of businesses or assets. Divestitures of portions of our business have also resulted and may continue to result in costs stranded in our remaining business. Delays in developing or implementing plans to address such costs could delay or prevent the accomplishment of our financial objectives, and we may be unsuccessful in partially or fully mitigating such costs. The failure to complete any planned divestitures may also result in negative business and financial results. The amount of contingent consideration, if any, received in divestitures may also vary based on various factors, including actual future brand performance. We have acquired or retained ownership interests in companies which we do not control, such as our joint venture to operate the Glass Plant, our interest in Canopy, and investments made through our corporate venture capital function; and we have acquired control of companies which we did not wholly own. We have also acquired full ownership of companies that we partially owned, such as our acquisitions of the remaining ownership interests in Austin Cocktails, My Favorite Neighbor, and Nelson's Green Brier. These types of transactions could occur again in the future. Our joint venture partners or the other parties that hold or may hold the remaining ownership interests in companies which we do not control may at any time have economic, business, or legal interests or goals that are inconsistent with our goals or the goals of the joint ventures or those companies. Our joint venture arrangements and the arrangements through which we acquired or hold our other equity or membership interests often require us to, among other matters,pay certain costs, make capital investments, fulfill alone our joint venture partners' obligations, or purchase other parties' interests. The entities in which we have an interest have been and may continue to be subject to litigation which may have an adverse impact on their ability to do business or under which they may incur costs and expenses which could have a material adverse impact on their operations or financial condition which, in turn, could negatively impact the value of our investment. In addition, our continued success depends, in part, on our ability to develop and market new products. The launch and ongoing success of new products are inherently uncertain, especially with respect to consumer appeal and our ability to deliver optimized marketing in an evolving and dynamic media landscape, including through existing and emerging digital technologies, such as AI and data analytics. A new product launch gives rise to a variety of costs which impact profitability. An unsuccessful launch can, among other things, affect consumer perception of existing brands and our reputation. Unsuccessful implementation or short-lived popularity of our product innovations has resulted and may in the future result in inventory write-offs and other costs. We may not complete acquisitions, divestitures, or investments on our expected terms, conditions, and timetables, and we may not realize the expected benefits of acquisitions, divestitures, investments, or NPD. We have recognized significant impairment losses and/or write-offs in connection with acquired and divested businesses and investments, such as our recent Wine and Spirits and Canopy-related impairments, and we may do so again in the future. Furthermore, our acquisitions, investments, or joint ventures may not be profitable, our forecasts regarding these activities may not be accurate, or the internal control over financial reporting of entities which we must consolidate as a result of our investment activities but do not control or wholly own may not be as robust as our internal control over financial reporting. Our failure to adequately manage the risks associated with acquisitions, divestitures, investments, or NPD, or the failure of an entity in which we have an equity or membership interest, could have a material adverse effect on our business, liquidity, financial condition, and/or results of operations.

Local market structures and distribution channels vary worldwide. Within our primary market in the U.S., we offer a range of beverage alcohol products with generally separate distribution networks utilized for our beer portfolio and our wine and spirits portfolio. In the U.S., we sell our products principally to wholesalers for resale to retailers and directly to government agencies. We have an exclusive arrangement with one wholesaler that generates a large portion of our branded U.S. wine and spirits net sales, and we have one wholesaler for our beer portfolio which, through multiple entities, represents approximately one-quarter of our consolidated net sales. Customers of our products offer directly competing products that vie for retail shelf space, restaurant presence, wholesaler attention, promotional support, and consumer purchases, and our Customers may give higher priority to products of our competitors. Employees of wholesalers or retailers of our products have engaged and may in the future engage in labor strikes, other work stoppages, or other labor activities. Such activities or the replacement or poor performance of our major Customers could result in temporary or longer-term sales disruptions and could have a material adverse effect on our business, liquidity, financial condition, and/or results of operations.

We have been and may continue to be subject to litigation, including the legal proceedings described under Item 3. of this Form 10-K. There has also been public attention directed at the beverage alcohol industry, which we believe is due to concerns related to harmful use of alcohol, including drinking and driving, underage drinking, and health consequences from the misuse of alcohol. In addition, we have been and could continue to be exposed to claims or lawsuits relating to product liability, marketing or sales practices, including product labeling, false advertising, privacy, website accessibility, and other matters. With our international operations, we have been and may continue to be subject to risk of a wide variety of other legal claims and proceedings by external parties, employees, and stockholders. Litigation is inherently unpredictable and subject to substantial uncertainties and unfavorable developments and resolutions could occur. In addition, the amount of time and cost to defend ourselves could be substantial. Adverse developments in lawsuits related to such matters as well as the time and costs associated with such activities or a significant decline in the social acceptability of beverage alcohol products or for our products specifically that may result from lawsuits could have a material adverse effect on our business, liquidity, financial condition, and/or results of operations.

Changes to federal, state, provincial, local, or foreign tax laws, could result in increased taxes on our products, business, Customers, or consumers. Various proposals to increase taxes on beverage alcohol products have been made at the federal and state levels or at other governmental bodies in recent years. Federal, state, provincial, local, or foreign governmental entities may consider increasing taxes upon beverage alcohol products as they explore available alternatives for raising funds, including to offset budget or other deficits. In addition, significant judgment is required to determine our effective tax rate and evaluate our tax positions. Our provision for income taxes includes a provision for uncertain tax positions. Fluctuations in federal, state, local, and foreign taxes, or a change to uncertain tax positions, including related interest and penalties, may impact our effective tax rate and our financial results. When tax matters arise, several years may elapse before such matters are audited and finally resolved. Unfavorable resolution of any tax matter could increase our effective tax rate and resolution of a tax issue may require the use of cash in the year of resolution. U.S. tax changes or changes in how international corporations are taxed, including changes from the OB3 Act, in how existing tax laws are interpreted or enforced, or to accounting standards, elections, or assertions as well as to our accounting policies, could have a material adverse effect on our business, liquidity, financial condition, and/or results of operations. For example, the OECD introduced a framework under Pillar Two which includes a 15% global minimum tax rate. Many jurisdictions in which we do business have started to enact laws implementing, or have draft legislation proposed for adoption to implement, Pillar Two. We are monitoring impacts of the OB3 Act that are expected to negatively impact our effective tax rate for Fiscal 2027 as well as developments around Pillar Two because such changes, when enacted by various jurisdictions in which we do business, may significantly increase our taxes in these jurisdictions.

We operate in a highly competitive and constantly evolving industry, and our sales and/or profitability have been and could continue to be negatively affected by numerous factors, including: - our inability to maintain or increase prices or develop successful new products and the impact of price reductions on certain products;- increases in our advertising or marketing expenditures to maintain our competitive position;- our inability to adopt or effectively deploy existing, new, and/or emerging technologies, including AI;- new or emerging entrants in our market or categories, including from the convergence of beverage categories or from the participation and expansion of large, non-alcoholic beverage companies, some of which have greater resources than we do, into the beverage alcohol space;- the consolidation of distributors, wholesalers, retailers, suppliers, and other beverage companies;- the decision of existing or potential Customers or consumers to purchase competitors' products instead of ours, including due to competitive pricing pressures;- pricing, purchasing, financing, operating, advertising, or promotional and shelf space decisions made by existing or potential Customers as well as in DTC channels which may affect supply of or consumer demand for our products;- a general decline in beverage alcohol consumption or changes in consumer preferences away from our products, including due to consumer dietary preference changes, weight loss regimens, pharmaceuticals, or consumers substituting legalized cannabis or hemp-derived or similar products in lieu of beverage alcohol; or - consumer spending shifts, including to other consumer discretionary sectors, such as online gambling. Our continued success also depends on our ability to attract and retain a high-quality workforce that reflects the consumers and communities we serve in a competitive environment for talent and to implement our human capital strategy, priorities, and initiatives. We could experience higher expenses to deliver on our human capital strategy, priorities, and initiatives, such as for investment in our personnel, including due to employee turnover, wage inflation, and/or other current or emerging employment trends, particularly in the U.S., to defend ourselves in investigations or against existing or new litigation, or for other reasons. We may be unable to increase our prices to pass along any increased costs we incur to our Customers.

Our business depends upon consumers' consumption of our products, and sales of our beer brands in the U.S. represent the vast majority of our business. Consumer preferences, behaviors, perception, and sentiment may shift due to a variety of factors, including changes in taste preferences and leisure, dining, and beverage purchasing and consumption patterns, U.S. demographic trends, changing market dynamics, including consumer-led premiumization, moderation, and betterment trends, pricing, perceived value, branding, marketing, and reputational considerations, geopolitical events and tensions, trends involving environmental sustainability and CSR matters, and other negative trends impacting our products, business, and the entire beverage alcohol industry, such as elevated product supply or inventory levels. Further, a limited or general decline in consumption in one or more of our product categories has occurred before and could occur again in the future due to a variety of factors, including: - reduced consumer discretionary income, subdued overall consumer spending, and value-seeking behavior among consumers as well as elevated unemployment;- new or increased tariffs, import and excise duties, or other taxes on or impacting beverage alcohol products, including raw and packaging materials;- uncertainty, instability, or a general decline in economic or geopolitical conditions;- impacts from inflation, including reduced consumer spending and increased costs, such as for commodities;- consumer spending shifts, including to other consumer discretionary sectors, such as online gambling;- concern about the health consequences of consuming beverage alcohol products, including moderation and betterment trends and the impacts of alcohol-related health warning recommendations, such as cancer risk warnings, and about drinking and driving or other safety considerations;- reduced consumption of beverage alcohol products, including as a result of consumers participating in fewer social occasions, stricter laws, such as those relating to consumption or driving while under the influence of alcohol, or consumer dietary preference changes, weight loss regimens and pharmaceuticals, including GLP-1 drugs, or consumers substituting legalized cannabis or hemp-derived or other similar products in lieu of beverage alcohol;- activity from governmental entities, anti-alcohol groups, or other bodies, such as the World Health Organization, advocating measures or guidelines designed to reduce or eliminate the consumption of beverage alcohol products or require more stringent labeling or warning requirements;- restrictions on beverage alcohol advertising and marketing;- increased regulation restricting the purchase or consumption of beverage alcohol products;- changes in immigration laws, regulations, policies, and enforcement impacting consumers, particularly Hispanic consumers;- the ability of our wine and spirits business to achieve long-term growth, including through portfolio repositioning, operational efficiency initiatives, and expansion of brands by leveraging global, omni-channel capabilities as well as ongoing wine and spirits category headwinds; or - wars or military conflicts, including the conflict in the Middle East, disease outbreaks or pandemics, quarantines, severe weather events, and natural or man-made disasters, including wildfires, droughts, floods, extreme heat, and/or late frosts. If these or any other factors cause or continue to cause a decline in the growth rate, amount, or profitability of sales of our products, particularly our beer brands in the U.S., or any material shift in consumer preferences, behaviors, perception, and sentiment in our major markets away from our products, and our beer brands in particular, or from the categories in which they compete, or if our financial or operational forecasts turn out to be inaccurate, it could adversely affect our business, liquidity, financial condition, and/or results of operations.

The success of our brands depends upon consumer perception, including having a positive image of those brands, and maintaining a good reputation is critical to selling our branded products. Our reputation could also be impacted negatively by public perception, adverse publicity (whether or not valid), negative comments or campaigns in social media or other public forums, or our responses relating to, among other things: - a perceived or actual failure to maintain high ethical standards and responsible operating practices to achieve our business goals;- a perceived or actual failure to address concerns relating to the quality, safety, integrity, or health aspects of our products, including from accidental or deliberate contamination or tampering;- actions we may take to enhance or safeguard our reputation and uphold our core values, including changes or activities related to our workforce, operations, sales, advertising, marketing, and NPD;- allegations that we, or persons currently or formerly employed by or associated with us, have allegedly or actually violated applicable laws or regulations, including those related to safety, employment, discrimination, harassment, whistleblowing, privacy and data protection, corporate citizenship, improper business practices, or cybersecurity, or have otherwise engaged in negatively perceived activities;- marketing or advertising, such as in social media, that results in our products having an unintended association with or appearance near contentious content;- investors, activists, influencers, or other stakeholders seeking to influence our business, strategies, operations, and products;- geopolitical events and tensions and associated negative impacts on our products and business;- our environmental impact, including the use of agricultural and other raw materials, water, and energy, packaging, and waste management;- perceptions and demands toward, and publicity surrounding or our performance related to, our environmental sustainability and CSR strategies, initiatives, and aspirations, including impacts of advocacy, protests, boycotts, and similar activities, and associated reporting regulations, standards, frameworks, and ratings;- our investment in and association with a cannabis business; or - efforts that are perceived as insufficient to promote the responsible use of alcohol or cannabis. Various stakeholders have expressed widely divergent views on environmental sustainability, social, human capital, and governance-related matters, among others, and we are faced with conflicting expectations and regulations regarding such matters which has inhibited and may continue to inhibit our ability to achieve a consistently positive perception across our entire stakeholder base. Failure to comply with applicable laws and regulations, maintain an effective system of internal controls, provide accurate and timely financial information, or protect our information systems against service interruptions, theft, or misappropriation of data, or breaches of security, could also hurt our reputation. Damage to our reputation or loss of consumer confidence in our products for any of these or other reasons could result in decreased demand for our products and could have a material adverse effect on our business, liquidity, financial condition, and/or results of operations, as well as require additional resources to rebuild our reputation, competitive position, and brand equity and renew investor confidence.

Our future success depends significantly on our ability to protect our current and future brands and products and to defend our intellectual property rights. We have been granted numerous trademark registrations and use certain trademarks under license covering our brands and products, and we have filed, and expect to continue to file or have filed on our behalf, trademark applications seeking to protect newly developed brands and products. Trademark registrations may not be issued with respect to any such trademark applications. We could also fail to timely renew or protect a trademark, and others could challenge, invalidate, or circumvent any existing or future trademarks issued to, or licensed by, us. We have been and may continue to be subject to litigation related to our trademarks and intellectual property rights. Litigation is inherently unpredictable and subject to substantial uncertainties and unfavorable developments and resolutions could occur. In addition, the amount of time and cost to defend ourselves could be substantial. A substantial adverse judgment or other unfavorable resolution of these matters or our failure to otherwise protect our intellectual property rights as well as the costs associated with such activities could have a material adverse effect on our business, liquidity, financial condition, and/or results of operations.

We depend on IT to enable us to operate efficiently and interface with Customers, suppliers, and consumers, maintain financial accuracy and efficiency, and effect accurate and timely governmental reporting, among other activities. If we do not allocate and effectively manage the resources to build and sustain appropriate technology infrastructure, including our global enterprise resource planning system and our unified finance platform, we could be subject to transaction or data integrity errors, processing inefficiencies, increased costs, loss of Customers, business disruptions, loss of or damage to intellectual property or proprietary information, including through a security breach, penalties associated with the failure to timely file governmental reports, and/or other difficulties. Many groups on a worldwide basis have experienced increases in electronic security breaches, cyberattacks, and other hacking activities such as phishing attacks, denial of service, malware, ransomware, and cyber extortion, and there is the possibility of retaliatory cyberattacks, including by state-sponsored organizations. As with all large IT systems, we have been a target of cyberattackers and other hacking activities and our systems could be penetrated by increasingly sophisticated external or internal threat actors (including through the use of existing and emerging technologies, such as AI) intent on extracting confidential or proprietary information, corrupting our information, disrupting our business processes, engaging in the unauthorized use of strategic information about us or our employees, Customers, or consumers, or demanding monetary payment. Such unauthorized access could disrupt our operations and result in various costs and adverse consequences, including the loss of assets, decreased sales, litigation, regulatory actions, remediation costs, increased cybersecurity protection costs, damage to our reputation, harm to our employees, or the failure by us to retain or attract Customers or consumers following such an event. We have outsourced various functions to third-party service providers, including cloud-based technology providers, and may outsource other functions in the future. We rely on such third-parties to provide services on a timely and effective basis, but we do not ultimately control their performance. In addition, our Customers, suppliers, joint venture partners, and other external business partners utilize their own IT systems that are subject to similar risks to us as described above. Their failure to perform as expected or as required by contract, or additional cyberattacks on them that disrupts their systems, could result in significant disruptions and costs to our operations or, in the case of third-party service providers, a penetration of our systems. The swift pace of technological change has led to a nonuniform and complex set of cybersecurity and data privacy laws, regulations, and standards. Meanwhile, the recent proliferation and rapid evolution of AI technologies, including generative AI, machine learning, and agentic AI, has resulted in new challenges, including business, legal and regulatory, and ethical considerations and uncertainty. For example, the use of AI technologies without adequate safeguards could produce flawed or inaccurate recommendations, suggestions, or outcomes or other unintended results or potential vulnerabilities or expose us to liability or adverse legal or regulatory consequences. AI technologies may also intensify the risk of threat actors using such technologies to enhance their capabilities. Our employees and third-party service providers may not follow the governance framework addressing the use of AI technologies we implemented, including if such providers incorporate AI technologies into their products or systems without disclosing this use to us. We expect that our continued success will depend, in part, on our and our third-party service providers' ability to continue to effectively leverage existing and emerging technologies, such as AI and data analytics, to gain relevant insights and enhance our business. These circumstances may create risks in our ability to address existing or rapidly developing regulatory or industry standards related to AI technologies and data privacy and to successfully and responsibly utilize AI technologies. To the extent any of the foregoing factors result in significant disruptions and costs to our operations, fail to produce the anticipated benefits, compromise confidential or sensitive information, imperil our intellectual property, result in harm to our reputation and the public perception of the effectiveness of our IT systems and cybersecurity measures,result in litigation or regulatory actions, and/or reduce the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting, it could have a material adverse effect on our business, liquidity, financial condition, and/or results of operations.