Posted on 07/22/2004 6:35:22 AM PDT by Clive
MONTREAL (CP) - Molson Inc., Canada's largest brewer, has agreed to merge with Adolph Coors Co. in a $6-billion US deal that creates a new beer behemoth and ends the independence of two of North America's biggest family-run brewing icons.
"This transaction allows us to create a stronger company in a consolidating global industry while preserving Molson's rich heritage as North America's oldest beer company and Canada's leading brewer," Eric Molson, chairman of Molson, said in a combined statement with Coors early Thursday.
The agreement would create the world's fifth biggest brewer - to be called Molson Coors Brewing Co. - as measured by volume of beer sold and the third-biggest brewer in the United States.
"This historic transaction combines 350 years of brewing excellence and will create a dynamic and competitive organization able to deliver long-term value to shareholders while continuing to be an important contributor to the communities in which we operate," Coors chairman Peter Coors said from Golden, Colo.
The Montreal company revealed the structure of the deal when it reported financial results early Thursday.
"The transaction is structured as a share exchange whereby Molson Inc. shareholders can either convert their shares to shares of the new entity or can elect to receive exchangeable shares on a tax deferred basis," Molson said.
Thursday's merger continues a wave of consolidation in the global beer industry that has seen U.S. and European brewers get bigger to grow more rapidly in an increasingly competitive international market.
It also means that Canada's two major brewers, which account for nearly nine in 10 bottles of beer sold in this country - will effectively be foreign owned. Molson's chief rival, Toronto-based Labatt Brewing, is controlled by Belgian beer giant Interbrew.
For Molson, the merger with Coors should expand its markets in the United States and help improve the company's financial fortunes, which have been hurt by an ill-fated 2002 expansion into Brazil and flat beer sales in Canada.
Molson reported Thursday that excluding special charges for restructuring and gains, net profits fell 19.3 per cent to $68.3 million in the three months ended June 30, the first quarter of the company's 2005 fiscal year. That was down from profits of $84.6 million last year.
Meanwhile, total Molson beer sales volume fell 3.4 per cent, including 2.8 per cent in Canada and 4.2 per cent in Brazil.
Quarterly revenues rose to $675 million from $661.8 million, the company reported.
Molson and Coors. Swell. To borrow a catchphrase from the competition, if I'd wanted water, I'd have asked for it.
Fortunately, this is why God made Alexander Keith's, Sleeman, and the Upper Canada Brewing Company.
I worked for coors here in Colorado for over a year and never heard of (any having to take one) or took a polygrah test. Where did you hear this?
I refused to buy any of their products after I tasted some. Never been that fond of Molsons either.
molson is the worst thing to come out of canada.
I'm sure they no longer do this. (From a quick google search: "Coors discontinued all employee polygraph testing on August 31, 1986."
[Here] is a link to some more infomation.
On April 5, 1977, 1,472 members of Brewery, Bottling, Can and Allied Industrial Union Local No. 366 walked out of the Coors Brewery in Golden, Colorado. The purpose for the walkout was not the usual concern about wages, since the average worker made $19,500 for a forty-two hour work-week. The conflict was over human rights: the union felt that Coors was not an equal opportunity employer, that the mandatory polygraph test questions did not relate directly to their jobs, and that members of the Coors family were union busters. In 1977, the Coors Boycott and Strike Support Coalition of Colorado was formed to encourage and support both Coors union workers and union supporters.
Maybe together they can produce a decent brew.
AHHHH had then all, Alaskan Amber is where it is at.
Coors beer absolutely sucks...
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