Our History
Molson Coors Brewing Company embodies more than 350 years of pioneering spirit.
Within its history is the perseverance of an English immigrant who created a new strain of yeast because he couldn’t find one that met his exacting standards. Within its history is a 26-year-old German immigrant who came to the US as a penniless stowaway and within five years realized his dream of opening a brewery in the foothills of Colorado’s Rocky Mountains.
And within its history, shared values of determination, ingenuity, and commitment to social responsibility before it was fashionable, because good acts make for good business.
The companies that formed Molson Coors Brewing Company in 2005, the Adolph Coors Company and Molson Inc., began as similar dreams in the minds of John Molson in 1786 and Adolph Coors in 1873. These two men were separated by dozens of years and almost 2,000 miles, but they founded businesses that from day one were rooted in a commitment to community and craft.
The founders’ determination imbued their companies with the tenacity to endure and prosper despite a climate colder than Moscow, the frenzy of the Gold Rush, torching of the Parliament building by rebel invaders, more than a dozen years of Prohibition, and the Great Depression.
Great companies are shaped through passion, pride, and heritage. And sometimes, by coming together they can do even greater things.
Timeline
Adolph Coors Company
1847: Coors Brewing Company traces its history to this date, when Adolph Coors is born in Barmen, Prussia. At 14 years of age, Adolph finds what will become his life’s work, when he begins an apprenticeship at the Henry Wenker Brewery in Dortmund.
1868: Stowing away on a ship bound for the United States, Adolph arrives in Baltimore with no money and no job. What he does have is a dream of establishing a brewery of his own. Adolph hires on as the foreman at the Stenger Brewery in Naperville, Illinois, in 1869.
1873: Adolph Coors, age 26, opens the Golden, Colorado Brewery.
1880: The company is so successful that Adolph is able to buy out his partner and become the brewery’s sole owner. Annual output is 3,500 barrels.
1916: Prohibition becomes a reality in Colorado, and, by 1920, it spreads to all states. Working together, Adolph and his three grown sons find ways to keep the brewery open, and operations profitable, during what becomes 18 long, dry years. Coors was more fortunate than most US brewers. Of the 1,568 breweries operating in 1910, only 750 reopened after Prohibition was repealed in 1933.
1937: The waterfall logo is incorporated and the company introduces its “Brewed with Pure Rocky Mountain Spring Water” slogan.
1941: Coors aids war efforts by setting aside one-half of all beer production for sale to military.
1945: As World War II ends, Coors produces 300,000 barrels of beer, double the prewar level. During the next decade, sales continue to climb, topping one million barrels in 1955.
1953: Coors advertises for the first time on television.
1959: Led by Bill Coors, Coors introduces the first two-piece aluminum beverage can.
1968: Coors engineers develop a new automated-can body maker; the machine is the choice for worldwide can lines.
1970: Coors annual sales exceed 7 million barrels.
1972: Coors wins the Environmental Protection Agency’s first environment control award for corporations.
1975: Adolph Coors Company becomes a publicly traded company.
1975: This year marks the height of the cult status era for Coors beer. Coors’ limited distribution leaves consumers in the eastern United States clamoring for a taste of the Rocky Mountains’ finest beer, and many of them go to great lengths to experience what is known as the Coors mystique.
1978: Coors Light is introduced and dubbed the “Silver Bullet.”
1990: Annual production exceeds 19 million barrels.
1991: Coors is now available in all 50 states. During the 90s, Coors becomes the nation’s third-largest brewer and experiences the fastest volume growth rate in the industry.
2002: Coors purchases the majority of the assets of Bass Brewers in the United Kingdom from Interbrew SA and forms Coors Brewers Limited – the second-largest brewer in the United Kingdom.
Coors Brewers Limited
1744: William Worthington starts brewing in Burton-on-Trent, UK
1777: William Bass starts his own brewing business in Burton, UK
1784: British ales were exported to St. Petersburg and the Baltics.
1799: Exports to North America.
1839 to 1844: The introduction of the Birmingham to Derby and Midland Railway provides the opportunity for fast transport and new lines.
1850: Bass production tops 100,000 barrels.
1876: The Bass triangle is registered as Britain’s first trademark.
1877: Bass produces more than 1 million barrels a year.
1900: There are more than 32 breweries in Burton, including 87 miles of private brewery track and 36 level crossings in town.
1926: Bass and Worthington breweries merge.
1940s: A declining overseas market for Burton beers and the effects of two world wars lead to a spate of brewery mergers from the 1940s onward. With the aid of new technology, the remaining breweries are able to concentrate on fewer sites.
1954: Carling Black Label launched in the UK First brewed at Hope & Anchor Brewery, Sheffield.
1960s: A new series of mergers leads to the creation of Bass Charrington, the UK’s largest brewer.
1970s: Bass Charrington is renamed Bass Plc.
1998: Carling Black Label re-branded as Carling.
2000: Interbrew acquires Bass Brewers.
2002: Coors acquires the England and Wales-based business of Bass Brewers from Interbrew and creates Coors Brewers Limited, the UK’s second largest brewer with more than 20% market share.
2003: Carling becomes first and only UK beer to achieve sales of 5 million UK barrels per year.
Today: Carling continues to be the UK’s biggest selling beer brand.
Molson
1786: In a January 18 letter to an English relative, John Molson writes: “My beer has been universally well-liked beyond my most sanguine expectations.”
1788: Molson Brewery produces 258 hogsheads of beer (13,932 gallons).
1797: John Molson opens lumberyard on brewery property to accommodate building materials shortage in Montreal. First of many diversifications.
1800: Molson uses the first glass bottles.
1821: John Molson is one of a group of private citizens who founded Montreal’s first public hospital, Montreal General Hospital.
1844: Of 11,500 gallons of beer sold in May, 3,250 quarts go to customers in glass containers. This signals beginning of change in marketing techniques, which later leads to packaging and branding.
1846: Brewery reaches 100,000 gallon production milestone.
1855: Molson’s Bank receives charter. William Molson is president; John Molson Jr. is vice president.
1859: Molson commences direct retail sales and introduces pint bottles.
1886: Brewery celebrates its 100th anniversary and a 175-fold increase in beer volume since founding year.
1900: Electricity replaces steam; refrigeration is introduced (allowing brewing to continue throughout the year for the first time); and packaging methods are modernized.
1909: Brewery reaches yearly production milestone of 2,000,000 gallons.
1945: Formation of public joint-stock company, Molson’s Brewery Limited. The company offers up public ownership in the brewery.
1949: First million barrel year (25 million gallons).
1959: The Molson Canadian brand is introduced.
1971: Molson reaches the 100 million gallon production milestone.
1976: Molson becomes principle sponsor of Hockey Night in Canada.
1989: Molson Breweries merges with Carling O’Keefe becoming Canada’s largest brewer and the fifth largest brewer in North America.
2000: Molson enters the South American market by acquiring Bavaria, a leading beer brand in Brazil, formerly owned by Companhia de Bebidas das Américas.
2002: With the acquisition of Kaiser, the second leading brewer in Brazil, Molson becomes the 13th largest brewing company in the world. Molson subsequently merges Bavaria, its existing operation in Brazil, with Kaiser and enters into a partnership with Heineken which acquires 20% of the newly formed entity.
2003: Molson Export celebrates its 100 anniversary.