Ahead of the release on Wednesday of Molson Coors’ results for the fourth quarter and the 12 months of 2017, here’s a look at the events that shaped the three months to the end of December for the brewer.
- The quarter started with a curveball from the company: the group’s UK craft beer unit, Sharp’s, announced the wider roll-out of The Hopster gin, following a limited release of the spirits brand last year
- Molson Coors released its year-to-date results for 2017 at the start of November. The brewer said it faced “challenging market conditions” in North America as sales for the nine months to the end of September dipped 1% and profits fell 10%
- In a conference call following the results, talk turned to the burgeoning cannabis market. Group CEO Mark Hunter, who is based in Colorado where recreational cannabis use is legal, said that his company has a team of people “actively working to understand” cannabis. Hunter said the team is looking at the potential impacts and opportunities of the drug on the beer category
- November also saw Molson Coors lay out new water management targets, which it claimed go further than some of its rivals. In a sustainability report, the brewer said that by 2025 it wants a water-to-beer ratio of 2.8 hectolitres (2.8 hectolitres of water for every hectolitre of beer produced). At the time of the announcement, its ratio was 4.42:1
- Also in the month, the group’s unit in Canada added another craft brewer to its armoury, this time acquiring Quebec-based Trou du Diable
- November ended with more news from Canada – this time in the form of an offer to purchase land in Greater Montreal on which build a new brewery
- At the same time, Molson Coors moved the chief sales & customer excellence officer for its Canadian unit to the role of president & CEO at Molson Coors International. Sergey Yeskov assumed the position on 1 January
- In December, the brewer confirmed plans to launch a new non-alcoholic beer – set for this year – as it looks to transfer Europe’s success in the category to North America
- Later in the month, Molson Coors signed a distribution deal to bring the world’s biggest selling beer by volume, Snow, to the UK
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