E-Malt.com News article: Canada & US: Andrew Molson replaces Peter Coors as Molson Coors Brewing chairman

A seventh generation of the Molson family is taking the helm of Molson Coors as the brewer seeks to extend its global reach into emerging countries, The Canadian Press reported on May, 25.

Andrew Molson, 43, became chairman on May, 26, replacing Peter Coors as part of the biennial shift between the beer company’s founding families.

The change comes as Molson celebrates its 225th anniversary of its entry into the Canadian beer industry.

Molson told shareholders on May, 25 that the U.S. and Canadian company has succeeded since its 2005 merger by building strong and lasting partnerships.

It plans to take that status as “partnership experts” to grow international sales of its existing Coors Light, Carling and Molson Canadian brands and pursue acquisitions.

Molson Coors recruited a Coca-Cola executive to help its international division to grow beer volume by 27 per cent in 2010.

Sales represent more than one per cent of overall volume, but the company believes the new markets will deliver 25 to 30 per cent of its profit growth by 2015.

The brewer is focusing on Russia and Asia, led by Vietnam and China. It established a joint venture with Si’hai Beer Company to further grow its brands in the world’s largest beer market. And it signed a brewing and distribution agreement with Mahou San Miguel for Carling in Spain.

In addition to expansion, Molson Coors is hinging its growth on maximizing the profitability of its core markets in Canada, the U.S. and Britain by cutting costs.

Chief executive Peter Swinburn said the last few years have been challenging for the industry as it faced reduced demand caused by unemployment and the global recession.

It has tried to increase revenues by investing in its brands. It has come out with a series of new products and updated several lagging beers, including Molson Export and Molson Canadian.

Despite the recession, Molson Coors has increased its underlying pretax profit over the last two year by 21 per cent and generated more than US$1.6 billion of free cash.

On the Toronto Stock Exchange, its shares gained 21 cents at C$45.68 in afternoon trading.



27 May, 2011