| Industry | Beverages |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1873 |
| Founder(s) | Adolph Coors and Jacob Schueler |
| Headquarters | Golden, Colorado, U.S. |
| Area served | North America, United Kingdom and Ireland |
| Key people | Leo Kiely and Peter Swinburn |
| Products | Beers |
| Revenue | $5 billion U.S. in sales |
| Parent | Molson Coors Brewing Company |
| Website | http://www.coors.com/ |
The Coors Brewing Company is a regional division of the world's fifth-largest brewing company, the Canadian Molson Coors Brewing Company and is the third-largest brewer in the United States.[1] Coors is also renowned for operating the Golden, Colorado brewery, the largest single brewery facility in the world.[2]
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In 1873, German immigrants Adolph Coors and Jacob Schueler, a Denver businessman, established a brewery in Golden, Colorado. Coors invested $2,000 in the operation in addition to Schueler's investment of $18,000. In 1880, Coors bought out his partner, becoming sole owner of the company.
The Coors Brewing Company managed to survive Prohibition relatively intact. Years before the Volstead Act went into effect nationwide, Adolph Coors with sons Adolph Jr., Grover, and Herman established the Adolph Coors Brewing and Manufacturing Company, which included Herold Porcelain and other ventures. The brewery itself was converted into a malted milk and near beer production facility. Coors sold much of the malted milk to the Mars candy company for the production of confection. Manna, the company's non-alcoholic beer replacement, was a near beer which is similar to current non-alcoholic beverages. However, Coors and sons relied heavily on the porcelain company as well as a cement and real estate company to keep the Coors Brewing Company afloat. By 1933, after the end of Prohibition, the Coors brewery was one of only a handful of breweries that survived Prohibition intact.
All the non-brewery assets of the Adolph Coors Company were spun off between 1989 and 1992; the descendant of the original Herold Porcelain ceramics business continues to operate as CoorsTek.[3]
For much of its history, Coors beer was a regional product; its marketing area was confined to the American west. This made it a novelty on the East Coast, and visitors returning from the western states often brought back a case. This iconic status was reflected in the 1977 movie Smokey and the Bandit, which centered around an illegal shipment of Coors from Texas to Georgia. The company finally established nationwide distribution in the U.S. in the mid-1980s.
In 1959, Coors became the first American brewer to use an all-aluminum two-piece beverage can. Coors currently operates the largest aluminum can producing plant, known as the Rocky Mountain Metal Container (RMMC), in the world in Golden, Colorado. RMMC is a joint venture between Ball Metal and Coors, having been founded in 2003.
In the 1970s, Coors invented the pollution free push tab can; however, consumers disliked the top and it was discontinued soon afterward. The long and current slogan of "Silver Bullet" to describe Coors Light is not for the beer but for the silver colored can in which the beer is packaged. Coors Light was once produced in the "yellow bellied" cans like Coors Banquet; however, when the yellow coloring was removed and the can was left mostly silver, many dubbed the beer as "The Silver Bullet".
In 2003, Coors was rated third largest producer of beer in the United States, and the second largest brewer in the United Kingdom through its subsidiary, Coors Brewers Limited.
On July 22, 2004, the company announced it would be merging with Canadian brewer Molson. The merger was completed February 9, 2005, with the merged company being named Molson Coors Brewing Company.
In August 2004, the Coors Brewing Company announced plans to add brewing capacity to the Shenandoah beer packaging facility in Elkton, Virginia by early 2007.[4] Coors officials stated that this would "bring brewing capacity much closer to our important East Coast markets and distributors."[5]
In April 1977, the brewery workers union at Coors, representing 1,472 employees, went on strike. The brewery kept operating with supervisors and 250 to 300 union members, including one member of the union executive board who ignored the strike. Soon after, Coors announced that it would hire replacements for the striking workers.[6] About 700 workers quit the picket line to go back to work, and Coors replaced the remaining 500 workers, keeping the beer production process uninterrupted.[7] In December 1978, the workers at Coors voted by greater than a two to one ratio to decertify the union, ending 44 years of union representation at Coors. Because the strike was by then more than a year old, striking workers could not vote in the election.[8]
Labor unions organized a boycott to punish Coors for its labor practices.[9] One tactic employed was a push for state laws to ban sales of unpasteurized canned and bottled beer.[10] Because Coors was the only major brewer at the time not pasteurizing its canned and bottled beer, such laws would hurt only Coors.[11] Sales of Coors suffered during the 10-year labor union boycott, although Coors stated that declining sales were also due to an industry-wide downturn in beer sales, and to increased competition. To maintain production, Coors expanded its sales area from the 18 western states to which it had marketed for years, to nationwide distribution.[12]
The AFL-CIO ended its boycott of Coors in August 1987, after negotiations with Pete Coors, head of brewery operations. The details were not divulged, but were said to include an early union representation election in Colorado, and use of union workers to build the new Coors brewery in Virginia.[13]
In 1988, the Teamsters Union, which represented brewery workers at the top three U.S. beer makers at that time (Anheuser-Busch, Miller, and Stroh), gained enough signatures to trigger a union representation election inside the Coors company. Coors workers again rejected union representation by more than a two to one ratio.[14]
A federal lawsuit by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 1975 ended in a settlement with Coors agreeing not to discriminate against blacks, Mexican-Americans, and women.[15]
In 1977, Coors was accused of firing gay and lesbian employees.[16] Coors encouraged the organization of its gay and lesbian employees into the Lesbian and Gay Employee Resource (LAGER) in 1993.[17] In May 1995 Coors became the 21st publicly-traded corporation in the United States to extend employee benefits to same-sex partners.[18] When company chairman Pete Coors was criticized for the company's gay-friendly policy during his 2004 Republican primary campaign for one of the US Senate seats from Colorado, he defended the policy as basic good business practice.[19]
Coors family members have played a prominent role in American politics and public policy, supporting many conservative causes. Such causes included providing a $250,000 grant in 1973 to found The Heritage Foundation,[20] an influential conservative public policy research institute, and, via its parent company, the right-leaning think tank American Enterprise Institute.
Chairman Pete Coors ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate from Colorado in 2004 on the Republican ticket.
Coors is responsible for over twenty different brands of beer[21] in North America. The most notable of those brands are Coors, Killian's, Caffrey's, and Blue Moon.
On 9 October 2007, SABMiller and Molson Coors Brewing Company announced a joint venture to be known as MillerCoors for their US operations that will market all of their products.[22]
Coors sponsored Premiership side Chelsea FC 1994–1997, the last competitive game that the club wore shirts bearing Coors as sponsors being the 1997 FA Cup Final in which they beat Middlesbrough 2-0 to end their 26-year wait for a major trophy.
Current twin company Carling was title sponsor of the Premier League from 1993–2001 and since 2003 has sponsored the Football League Cup. The two brands are also former sponsors of Rangers and Celtic. The clubs have worn strips with Coors Light logos for exhibitions in North America; while elsewhere, the strips promoted Carling, which is not offered in the U.S.
Coors is also the "Official" beer sponsor of NASCAR and formerly the NFL until Bud Light replaced it in 2011.[23]
Coors and/or Molson are beer sponsors of the NHL's Colorado Avalanche, Detroit Red Wings, Phoenix Coyotes, San Jose Sharks and all six Canadian teams. The company owns 20% of the Montreal Canadiens with the Molson family owning the other 80%, having purchased the shares from Colorado's George Gillett in 2009.[24]
In addition to its official NASCAR sponsorship, Coors Light has regularly sponsored cars in the series, most recently for Chip Ganassi Racing. Drivers to have Coors backing have included David Stremme, Bill Elliott (Bill Elliott won the Winston Million in 1985 and the 1988 Winston Cup Championship), Robby Gordon, Sterling Marlin, Kyle Petty, and Regan Smith. Coors is the title sponsor of the pole award in the NASCAR Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series.
Coors is also the official beer of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA).[25]
Coors holds the naming rights to Coors Field in Denver, Colorado, home of the Colorado Rockies baseball team.
The Coors Events Center on the campus of the University of Colorado at Boulder in Boulder, Colorado is named after Coors.
The Coors Life Direction Center of Regis University is also named after Coors.
Coors has sponsored English rugby league side Workington Town from the 2007 season, as well as British Ice Hockey Team, The Belfast Giants.
Coors was the main sponsor for the Coors Cycling Team (late 1980s to mid-1990s) and the sponsor for the major U.S. cycling event the Coors Classic, which ran from 1980-1988.
Coors is a sponsor of English Rugby Union team Gloucester; both Coors and Gloucester RFC were founded in 1873. Coors, through product line Worthingtons, brews a special beer 'Kingsholm Ale' which is sold in the stadium. The Worthington logo is featured on the Gloucester uniform.
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