Coors is one of the largest brewing companies in the world, coming in as the fifth largest. Coors itself is only a regional division of the Molson Coors Brewing Company, which is the third largest brewing company in the United States. The Coors brewery is located in Golden, Colorado (which is where it was originally started), and is the world’s largest brewery on a single site.
Adolph Coors Company (ADC) is the main parent company of Coors Brewing Company. ADC is the spawn of two German immigrants: Adolph Coors and Jacob Schuele, who came from Germany to America in 1873. Schueler was a successful business man, and he and Coors decided to establish a brewery in Golden, Colorado. Scheuler was the main investor, putting in a substantial $18,000 (which was worth a lot more back in 1873 than it is now), while Coors added only $2,000. Due to the brewery’s location, it didn’t take long for it to earn itself the nickname of “The Golden Brewery.” In a strange twist, Adolph Coors bought out Schueler from the company, making it entirely his. Nicknamed the “Banquet Beer”, Coor’s original beer was a pale lager, which was said to have taken its unique flavor straight from the water of the Rocky Mountains. To this day, Coors still is associated with the Rocky Mountains, and manufactures that same beer, which is appropriately named “Coor’s Original.” Since Coors was started so early, and in the heart of America, it had to endure the ban of liquor that was the Prohibition. However, being very resourceful, Coors survived the hard period (for alcoholic companies and alcoholics) by diversifying its manufacturing line. They temporarily stopped all alcoholic activities and started making malted milk and ceramics, which was enough to get it past the 20s economically undamaged. The ceramics company didn’t go away once Prohibition was repealed from the Constitution, and the Coors Ceramic business became CoorsTek.
For a long, long while Coors was only available in the American west. It was rarely seen anywhere on the East coast and was almost unheard of outside the United States. The reason it never penetrated outside the west for such a long time was because the beer is not pasteurized, therefore it could not get far without being refrigerated. It wasn’t until as late as 1990 that Coors finally went national. Soon after, it went international, and has a subsidiary in the United Kingdom, where it manufactures Carling, the UK’s most popular brew.
Like most large companies, acquisitions and mergers occur eventually. This was no different for Coors. In 2004, Coors announced that it would be merging with the Canadian brewing company Molson (hence the Molson Coors Brewing Company). The merger officially completed on February 9th, 2005.
Coors has also been influential in politics. It has been known for supporting many conservative causes all over the nation. In fact, the Chairman of Coors, Pete Coors, ran for U.S. Senate from Colorado in 2004 on the Republican ticket. Unfortunately for him, he didn’t win.
