I received an email yesterday afternoon from a Process Quality Specialist at Coors Brewing.
Strange: I don't believe I know this gentleman. Stranger yet: he was announcing that his email domain had changed from coors.com to MillerCoors.com.
Coors (owned by MolsonCoors of Canada) and Miller (owned by SABMiller of South Africa the United Kingdom) have merged their US operations into one company. Their respective corporations and international operations remain separate ... for now.
Peter Coors, vice chairman of Molson Coors Brewing Company, becomes chairman of MillerCoors. Graham Mackay, CEO of SABMiller, becomes vice chairman of MillerCoors.
The new company believes that it will achieve half a billion dollars in savings by streamlining across its 8 US breweries and combining distribution networks (which have already been merged in many areas).
Here's more from BrewBlog ("a daily look at Beer Industry News brought to you by MillerCoors").
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Greg Kitsock at the Washington Post writes today about the proposed merger between Belgian/Brazilian conglomerate InBev with the last remaining American brewing giant Anheuser-Busch.
Kitsock puts a face, a brand-name face, on InBev, which produces beers such as Stella Artois, Labatt, Franziskaner, Hoegaarden, and many more, but no 'InBev' brand per se. (There's a fairly complete list of InBev's brands at NowPublic.com.)
Kitsock asked the Brewers Association (the advocacy group for small US breweries) if the potential merger would be bad for craft beer in the US. Director Paul Gatza answered yes, and then no.
[Gatza] said a larger player would be able to dominate the market even more, grabbing taps and shelf space from the little guys. "I see no real upside for craft brewers," he saidMeet the Stranger You Already Know
On the other hand, Gatza said his member breweries are not too concerned, at least not yet. "If InBev sees craft brands can be done profitably, they'll support craft beer getting into the marketplace," he said.
Greg Kitsock
July 2, 2008
Washington Post
p. F5
Previous, related posts:
- Don't Cry For Me, Saint Louis. [29 June 2008]
- A-B vs. Interbrew: The battle is joined. [26 June 2008]
- Will InBev's Bud hurt craft brewers? [15 June 2008]
- It's now a matter of dollars and euros at Anheuser-Busch [12 June 2008]
- SaveBudweiser.com?
- A-B deathwatch: 1 June
- Bud to be sold? part3
- Bud to be sold? part2
- Budweiser for sale?
- InBev now world's largest brewer (over A-B) [2007]
Technically, SABMiller is a BRITISH company. They're headquarted in London, they're incorporated under English law, and they're listed on the London Stock Exchange. Indeed, the CEO is British. I suppose in practice they're international, but I wouldn't under any circumstances describe the company as South African.
ReplyDeleteNow, a word about "BevBud" and other such variations on the theme: what is being proposed is a buy-out by InBev of A-B, a significantly smaller company. It isn't a merger, and may not - if successful - result in a company which changes its name. A-B might just be another acquired brewery in InBev's portfolio. Sad for American nationalists, but true.