Denver will retain its Molson Coors Brewing Co. headquarters regardless of relocations that may occur from Coors’ pending joint venture with Miller Brewing, officials of Molson Coors said Thursday.
Molson Coors has a downtown Denver headquarters where the majority of the 100 employees who run the beer holding company work. The firm also has a co-headquarters in Montreal.
Molson Coors and London-based SABMiller agreed last year to merge the U.S. operations of Coors and Miller. The deal is awaiting approval by the U.S. Department of Justice.
Molson Coors chief executive Leo Kiely said no decisions have been made about where Coors and Miller will locate key top executives of the joint venture. Kiely will become CEO of the merged operation, vacating his Molson Coors position.
Kiely spoke about the merger after Thursday’s annual meeting of Molson Coors. He said Coors and Miller “need to pull a relatively small team of leadership together someplace.”
Whether the combined headquarters of Miller and Coors will be in Miller’s home of Milwaukee, Coors Brewing’s base in Golden or a third city, Denver will retain its Molson Coors headquarters, Molson Coors spokeswoman Kabira Hatland said.
“Molson Coors will continue to be headquartered in Denver and Montreal. (There is) no change there,” Hatland said.
Civic leaders and economic-development officials in Colorado and Wisconsin have been lobbying to have the Miller Coors headquarters located in their home states.
However, Molson Coors vice chairman Pete Coors said this year that the headquarters is likely to be in another state.
Kiely said Thursday that “Pete spoke for himself on that” when he made the remarks. “The decision hasn’t been made yet,” Kiely said.
He said Golden and Milwaukee will continue to have brewing operations and administrative staff regardless of the headquarters’ location.
“There will be at least two business locations listed on my business card — Golden and Milwaukee,” Kiely said.
Speculation on the Miller Coors headquarters location has included Chicago and Dallas.
Also at the annual meeting, a spokesman for the AFL-CIO office of investment urged Molson Coors to dismantle its shareholder voting system that vests most of the voting power with Coors and Molson family members.
Molson Coors chief legal officer Sam Walker responded that the current governance system is “a very powerful advantage for our company.”
No action was taken on that proposal.
Steve Raabe: 303-954-1948 or sraabe@denverpost.com
