MILWAUKEE _ History was made in the beer industry Tuesday when Molson Coors Brewing Co. completed its $12 billion acquisition of SABMiller PLC's stake in MillerCoors LLC that includes a brewery and 1,500 employees in Milwaukee.
Denver-based Molson Coors is now the sole owner of MillerCoors, which will continue to operate as a separate business of Molson Coors and will retain its name and headquarters in Chicago.
Now that it owns 100 percent of MillerCoors, Molson Coors says it doesn't anticipate major changes in the Milwaukee operations.
SABMiller and Molson Coors formed MillerCoors, their U.S. joint venture, in 2008. SABMiller owned 58 percent of the brewer and Molson Coors had 42 percent.
"We just spent a quarter of a billion dollars, since the beginning of the joint venture, upgrading the Milwaukee brewery. We recently transitioned the Blue Moon brand to Milwaukee and have spent tens of millions of dollars to do that," said MillerCoors CEO Gavin Hattersley.
He added: "We are really just starting to plan from a 'coming together' point of view. But there is not a whole lot of overlap between Molson Coors and MillerCoors. Most of the synergies are coming out of the procurement and supply chains ... This is business as usual, and a good thing, for Milwaukee."
Molson Coors says it expects to tally more than $200 million in cost savings from the MillerCoors deal, coming mostly from areas such as purchasing supplies and raw materials.
"Today represents a historic moment in the evolution of Molson Coors as we emerge as the world's third largest brewer by bringing together Molson Coors and MillerCoors into a bigger, better organization," said Mark Hunter, president and chief executive officer of Molson Coors.
"Having successfully operated the MillerCoors joint venture since 2008, we know the business well," Hunter added.
