US: MillerCoors selects Chicago to house head office

MillerCoors has picked Chicago as the location for its headquarters, with the city pipping Dallas to house the joint venture.

The company, an alliance between SABMiller and Molson Coors in the US and Puerto Rico, confirmed yesterday (15 July) that it will employ between 300 to 400 executive and management staff at the HQ. The majority of these will come from Miller Brewing's main office in Milwaukee and Molson Coors' Golden, Colorado base.

In February, Molson Coors vice chairman Pete Coors was cited as saying: "If you pick one city over another (Milwaukee or Golden), people in the other city will say, 'They're running the deal.' I don't think that's particularly healthy."

Tom Long, MillerCoors' president, said yesterday: "The decision to select Chicago as the location for our corporate headquarters was made to achieve our goal of becoming the best beer company in America by having access to an attractive base of talent, transportation and business resources."

MillerCoors advised its employees earlier this week that it will base itself in Chicago over Dallas.

"We are excited that MillerCoors has selected Chicago as the site of its corporate headquarters," said Chicago's mayor, Richard Daley. "The company's decision to locate its headquarters here strengthens our reputation as a world-class city in which to conduct business."

The head office should be up and running from June next year.