(Victor, NY) – Constellation Brands has had a busy week. On the same day that it announced the purchase of the remainder of its joint venture with Grupo Modelo, Crown Imports, the company also held a conference call for its first quarter earnings (2013 fiscal year). Here is an excerpt from the company’s financials relating to Crown this quarter…

“Crown’s momentum in the marketplace continued during the first quarter as it outperformed the U.S. beer industry and the import category while posting high single-digit depletion growth driven by strong performance of Modelo Especial and Corona Extra,” said (CEO Rob) Sands. “Crown kicked off the summer selling season with strong execution during Cinco de Mayo and this season’s ‘Win Your Beach’ sweepstakes promotion as well as other creative advertising campaigns.”

Sands added during the call that Corona Extra posted “depletions trends of more than 5%” and is a great “turnaround story.” He credited expanded distribution in the on-premise channel, unseasonably warm weather and ideal timing around drinking holidays.

He also said that its the ninth consecutive quarter that Crown Imports has outperformed the total U.S. beer category and import category in on-premise and off-premise channels.

Sands doesn’t expect any conflicts between Crown’s portfolio and A-B InBev’s import brands like Stella Artois. When asked whether innovation could be impacted by the new relationship, Sands remarked, “They can’t do knockoffs and we can’t do knockoffs,” but maintained that both companies will still have plenty of opportunities to innovate.