Molson Coors combines European units
Will there be an exodus from Burton to Prague as brewer Molson Coors integrates its European businesses into a single unit as of January 2013? Speculation is rife on the web following the announcement on 1 October 2012 that Molson Coors Europe will combine its UK and Ireland business with its recently acquired businesses in Central Europe and establish new pan-European headquarters in Prague.
The U.S.-Canadian brewer of Coors Light acquired StarBev in April this year for USD 3.5 billion (EUR 2.6 billion) to expand into central and eastern Europe.
Executives are already packing suitcases. The company said that Mark Hunter, 49, who currently oversees the central European business, will be CEO of the new unit. Stewart Glendinning, CEO of UK and Ireland, will head Molson Coors Canada, upon the retirement of current CEO Dave Perkins at the end of January. Glendinning is 46 and Perkins is 58.
Whether there will be any layoffs in Burton the brewer would not say. Obviously, certain back-office functions, currently based in Burton, will need to be transferred to Prague, too.
This May already, Molson Coors began consultations with staff over the loss of up to 40 jobs in Burton, most of them in production. The decision to axe jobs was blamed on the sorry state of the UK economy.
StarBev comprises nine breweries in the Czech Republic, Serbia, Croatia, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Slovakia.
In total, Molson Coors Europe will brew around 23.6 million hl of beer this year, representing USD 2.3 billion of net sales revenue, the firm said. The new unit thus accounts for about 38 percent of the company’s worldwide volume and 30 percent of sales revenue.
