Molson Coors gets crafty to fight loss of market share
The consumer craze for craft beers continues to put pressure on the country’s major brewers. While beer consumption has stagnated for several years, the number of breweries has risen from 644 in 2015 to 775 in 2016. Over half of them are located in only two provinces: Ontario and Quebec.
The Six Pints division, set up by Molson Coors to develop the specialty beer market, announced on 9 November 2017 that it has acquired the Quebec-based craft brewer Le Trou du diable (literally: the Devil’s Hole) in Shawinigan, about 160 km northeast of Montreal.
The agreement allows the brewery to continue its operations independently. Not included in the transaction is the eponymous restaurant, also in Shawinigan.
In the longer term, the transaction will expand Le Trou du diable’s sales and distribution. Already, its beers are sold in ten Canadian provinces and territories as well as in 20 US states. They are also available in some European and Asian countries.
Le Trou du diable was established in 2005. In 2013, a second and larger brewery was built with a 50 hl brewhouse and a bottling line.
For Molson Coors, the acquisition will help bolster its position in a market where specialty beers have begun to eat into the major brewers’ sales. Its Six Pints division has already bought into Ontario microbreweries Creemore Springs, Granville Island Brewing Company and, more recently, Brasseur de Montréal.
Molson Coors is the number two brewer in Canada, employing 3,000 people and operating seven breweries, including the Creemore and Granville Island breweries.
It has an estimated market share of 32 percent compared with Labatt’s 43 percent. Domestic beer consumption stood at 22 million hl in 2016, which translates into a per capita consumption of 77.1 litres.
