Molson Coors restructures and cuts up to 500 jobs

USA | Molson Coors, the parent of MillerCoors, will be moving hundreds of corporate office jobs to Milwaukee, which could lead to the loss of 400 to 500 employees throughout the company. The move will grow a local workforce that has its roots in Miller Brewing, although the MillerCoors name will be dropped.

What was MillerCoors, will now be known as Molson Coors Beverage Company as of 2020. The name change is meant to better reflect its strategic intent to expand beyond beer and into other growth segments.

Reuters says that the company, which had 17,750 employees at the end of 2018, plans to save about USD 150 million in costs, and expects to cut 400 to 500 jobs in its US, Canadian and international units. That is 2.8 percent of its total workforce.

The restructuring plan was announced on 30 October 2019, when Molson Coors reported its third quarter results, which included turnover and profit declines. Net sales totalled USD 2.84 billion, down from USD 2.93 billion a year earlier. Underlying profit for the quarter was USD 321.2 million, compared with USD 398.5 million a year ago.

Miller Brewing was founded in Milwaukee in 1855 and was sold to cigarette company Philip Morris in 1970. It was acquired by SAB from South Africa in 2002, before being merged with Coors to form the MillerCoors joint venture in 2008. SABMiller’s stake in MillerCoors was taken over by Molson Coors in 2016, when SABMiller was sold to AB-InBev. MillerCoors, in turn, is owned by Molson Coors, which has joint headquarters in Denver and Montreal.

The firm, formerly known as MillerCoors, is the number two brewer in the US, with a market share of 23.5 percent (2018), down from 28.2 percent in 2012, according to estimates by the Beverage Marketing Corporation, New York.

The job shift to Milwaukee is tied to a Molson Coors plan to simplify its corporate structure and cut costs. The company will move from a corporate centre and four business units to two business units: one for North America and one for Europe.

The North American business unit will consolidate the American and Canadian units and corporate centre. To this effect Molson Coors will close its Denver office, with the MillerCoors Chicago office becoming the North American operational headquarters.