GOLDEN, Colo. -- Coors Brewing Co., the third-largest U.S. beer maker by sales, has created a new subsidiary to develop high-end beers amid shifting consumer trends in the American beer industry, according to The Wall Street Journal.
AC Golden Brewing Co. will introduce above-premium beers to the marketplace at a deliberate pace, Coors Brewing, a unit of Molson Coors Brewing Co., told beer wholesalers in an email obtained by the newspaper. The patient selling model will contrast with the usual brewer process of full-blown, national rollouts that are [image-nocss] very expensive and have had only limited success historically.
The formation of the subsidiary comes at a time of slow growth in the American beer business, said the report. The industry has lost market share to wine and spirits makers, and upscale craft beers and imports have outperformed conventional domestic beers.
Anheuser-Busch Cos., the largest U.S. beer maker, and SABMiller PLC's Miller Brewing Co., the second-largest, have recently introduced new beverages in response to the changing landscape. Molson Coors, which has reported increased profits and sales in recent quarters, hasn't dabbled much in new drinks, focusing instead on its Coors Light, Keystone and craft-style Blue Moon brands.
The company said it would cultivate the upscale beers at a similar pace to how it slowly built Blue Moon, a Belgian-style wheat ale, over a decade. Blue Moon is now among the fastest-growing American beers, the report said.
The new unit will be run by Glenn Knippenberg, an industry veteran who worked previously for Coors Brewing.
In the email, Golden, Colo.-based Coors Brewing said the unit grew out of Molson Coors director Pete Coors' passion for great beer and his belief that there had to be a bettermore efficient and effectiveway for major brewers to introduce and build new brands. Mr. Coors is a former CEO of Coors Brewing.
A spokesperson for Coors Brewing declined to elaborate on the email, which didn't name any specific beverages the company would explore.
The company said in the email that it knows that wholesalers are eager for us to bring some new brands into the Coors portfolio.
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