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Molson Coors Announces Revitalization Plan

Molson Coors President and CEO Gavin Hattersley announced a sweeping corporate restructuring and revitalization plan aimed at streamlining the organization and reinvesting $150 million annually in its business around the globe.

The company, which will be renamed Molson Coors Beverage Co. effective Jan. 1, is consolidating to two business units from four. It will combine its U.S. business, MillerCoors, with its Latin America business and Molson Coors Canada to form a North America unit, and fold the remainder of Molson Coors International into Molson Coors Europe. MillerCoors, its U.S. corporate brand name adopted at the time of the formation of a joint venture in 2008, will be retired.

"Our business is at an inflection point,” Hattersley said, in a statement. “We can continue down the path we’ve been on for several years now, or we can make the significant and difficult changes necessary to get back on the right track.”

The changes he outlined, which include a new corporate leadership team, are “designed to streamline the company, move faster and free up resources to invest in our brands and our capabilities.”

Consolidation of business units

Molson Coors will close its Denver office and make Chicago its North American commercial headquarters. Most support functions, including finance, information technology, procurement, supply chain, legal and human resources, will be consolidated in Milwaukee. The company will continue to maintain global business services offices there and in Bucharest, Romania.

The Molson Coors International team, meanwhile, will be reconstituted, with its Latin American team becoming part of a new North American Emerging Growth team headed by Pete Marino. Its Asia, Pacific and Africa team will fold under the Europe business unit, which will be led by Simon Cox. The European unit will be structured to allow for standalone operations developed and supported by a Europe-based team that includes local leadership, commercial, supply chain and support functions. In total, the company expects job cuts of between 400 and 500 salaried positions, which will come primarily in North America and from Molson Coors International.

Molson Coors said savings will be funneled into investments behind its brands, further expansions in the beyond beer space and new digital capabilities. Under Hattersley’s plan, “we’ll be able to meaningfully invest across our portfolio, and invest in the capabilities we need to compete in the complex marketplace of today and tomorrow,” he said in the note.

The company will continue to pour resources behind big ideas like Coors Light’s “Made to Chill” campaign and Miller Lite’s newly launched “It’s Miller Time” campaign. It also plans to continue investing in the above-premium segment, putting more money behind emerging brands such as Saint Archer Gold, Blue Moon Light Sky, Cape Line and Arnold Palmer Spiked in the U.S., and Coors Slice in Canada. Molson Coors also will pursue beyond beer opportunities, such as a hard coffee and a canned wine in the U.S., a cider expansion in the U.K. and Truss’s forthcoming line of cannabis-infused nonalcoholic beverages in Canada.

Hattersley also said the company will invest in expanding its data resources to bolster its e-commerce abilities and better enable it to more effectively market to an evolving consumer base.

Leadership changes

To help him implement his wholesale reimagining of the company, Hattersley also named a new leadership team:

  •     Adam Collins, chief communications and corporate affairs officer
  •     Simon Cox, president and CEO of Molson Coors Europe
  •     Kevin Doyle, president of U.S. sales
  •     Brian Erhardt, chief supply chain officer
  •     Rahul Goyal, chief strategy officer
  •     Tracey Joubert, chief financial officer
  •     Fred Landtmeters, president of Molson Coors Canada
  •     Pete Marino, president of emerging growth
  •     Dave Osswald, chief people and diversity officer
  •     Lee Reichert, chief legal and government affairs officer
  •     Michelle St. Jacques, chief marketing officer