Yeah, I don’t know how Pabst wins this one.
Just as all mergers must just Justice Department approval, a business move such as this is anti-competitive and could be a “trust” violation.
MillerCoors is buying up breweries (which have their own brewing capacity)
https://www.millercoors.com/breweries/craft-breweries
https://www.millercoors.com/beers/shop-our-brands
MillerCoors is saying they don’t have the capacity to keep making Pabst. If they’d never made Pabst (under contract) they couldn’t have been forced into the arrangement. But each of their efforts to control the market for “beer” by buying up/out the competition must be approved. It comes with conditions.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MillerCoors
During the merger discussions between Anheuser-Busch InBev and SABMiller in 2015, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) had agreed to proposed deal only on the basis that SABMiller “spins off all its MillerCoors holdings in the U.S. — which include both Miller- and Coors-held brands — along with its Miller brands outside the U.S.” The entire ownership situation was complicated: “In the United States, Coors is majority owned [58%]by MillerCoors (a subsidiary of SABMiller) and minority owned by Molson Coors, though internationally it’s entirely owned by Molson Coors, and Miller is owned by SABMiller.”[16] SABMiller agreed to divest itself of the Miller brands. by selling its stake in MillerCoors to Molson Coors.[7]
After the merger on October 10, 2016 was concluded, SABMiller sold to Molson Coors full ownership of the Miller brand portfolio outside of the U.S. and Puerto Rico for US$12 billion. Molson Coors also retained “the rights to all of the brands currently in the MillerCoors portfolio for the U.S. and Puerto Rico, including Redd’s and import brands such as Peroni, Grolsch and Pilsner Urquell.” The agreement made Molson Coors the world’s third largest brewer.[17] The company is now also the largest brewer in the U.S.[8]
The Molson Coors press release provides a summary of the net effect in terms of the Miller portfolio. “As part of the transaction, Molson Coors gains full ownership of the Miller brand portfolio outside of the U.S. and Puerto Rico, and retains the rights to all of the brands currently in the MillerCoors portfolio for the U.S. and Puerto Rico, including Redd’s and import brands such as Peroni, Grolsch and Pilsner Urquell.”[17]
In the U.S., the change is merely one of ownership (from 42 percent to 100 percent by Molson Coors), and that will not be relevant or apparent to consumers or to MillerCoors employees.[18] However, the company was planning to increase investment in several of its brands, including new national marketing and advertising campaigns, to increase sales.[19]
Let me see, Pabst is having Coors/Miller brew and package their product? And they say they are a beer company?
Only thing I will admit, is their beer does taste different, so I guess the recipe is different.