Ask Fake Dog #1: Coors
Written 7 October 2008, 11:05 by Gearóid
Welcome to a new, regular feature of the Fake Dog blog, Ask Fake Dog. If you have any questions and Wikipedia can’t help you, then ask us and we’ll investigate for you. You can ask a question by leaving a comment, going on the message board, or on the contact page.
Today we’re asked:
What ever happened to Coors?
This is probably more relevant to those in Ireland and the UK, but it could be more far-reaching. We shall find out!
The point being made is that the beer Coors (which I will refer to as Coors Original from now on to avoid confusion) does not seem to exist anymore, only Coors Light. If one goes into a pub these days, only Coors Light is available, and Coors Original is nowhere to be seen. Does the Coors Original still exist?
When many of us were young, we were familiar with Coors because they were the sponsors of Chelsea. Even a search for that old jersey brings up images of Coors Light and the new Chelsea jersey, but no sign of the old Coors. What’s going on? I went to Coors Brewers’ UK site to find out.
Their press releases only go back to the start of 2007, and Coors Original has certainly been absent for longer than that. Notably absent from their brands page is Coors Original. The only Coors-branded beer mentioned on the site is Coors Light. So now we know that it’s officially no longer available in the UK. A quick search shows that it’s still available in the US, as seen on the US Coors website, advertised as “the Banquet Beer”. That narrows down the investigation to just this side of the Atlantic.
Now that we know it’s no longer being sold over here, it’s time to figure out just when it stopped being sold. Let’s take a quick look at Coors’ history.
The Adolph Coors Company was formerly a holding company controlled by the heirs of founder Adolph Coors. Its principal subsidiary is the Coors Brewing Company. It was founded in 1873.
In 2002, Coors acquired the England and Wales-based business of Bass Brewers from Interbrew and created Coors Brewers Limited, the UK’s second largest brewer with more than 20% market share. From Wikipedia and Coors Brewers UK
The answer may lie in this take-overs. The US part of Coors merged with Molson and Miller in 2002 and 2005 respectively, but since Coors Original is still available there, it seems this is irrelevant to our investigation.
So let’s go back to 2002 and see what exactly happened with the Coors-Bass take-over.
It turns out that there’s a lot more to the take-over than what the Coors site lets on. The bidding process was heated, and held between many of the biggest and well-known worldwide brewers, including Heineken, who were the favourites to win the bidding war. However, Coors won the bid on Christmas Eve in 2001 and bought Bass Brewers for £1.2bn. Included in this deal were brands such as Carling, Worthington and Grolsch.
It seems that this take-over was critical for Coors’ success on this side of the Atlantic, as the brand wasn’t very well-known before the take-over. So why is Coors Original gone, but Coors Light left remaining?
It seems that even back in 2001, Coors Light was more popular than the original non-light version. Given that Coors was not a terribly popular brand to begin with, it’s fair to assume that sales of original were poor. Now remember that Coors were just after buying the rights to brew Carling, the UK’s number one lager and it starts to make sense.
If Coors Original wasn’t popular, but Carling was a big seller, what point is there in a brewer marketing both of them? It seems that Coors Original was phased out around the time that the company bought the rights to Carling, as Coors Original could be seen as a competing drink. Coors Light, on the other hand, is marketed at a different audience, with its main selling point being that it is a light beer. Coors Original had little to separate it from Carling, so it was dropped in favour of its lighter variety.
It’s disappointing to find that after all this, the answer to the question is so simple. However, it’s hard to pinpoint an exact date when this phasing out of Coors became official, and it doesn’t seem like we’ll know any time soon. But Fake Dog will keep searching!
So, to answer your question …
What ever happened to Coors?
It just wasn’t popular anymore!
Update: 9th October 2008
I emailed Coors two days ago when I was writing this blog in the hope that they might give me some information on the demise of Coors Original. They replied within 24 hours, which I was not expecting. Unfortunately there’s little information about Coors Original in it, but there’s some interesting info on Coors Light.
Hi Gearoid, thanks for the email.
Coors Brewers began brewing and distributing Coors Fine Light Beer, a 5% ABV premium lager based on the US Coors Light product, in 2003. In 2007 we made the switch to the ‘US recipe’, reducing the ABV to 4.5% and re-launching as Coors Light – with the same positioning and branding as Coors Light in the US, Canada, South America and all global markets.
You refer to the ‘Original Coors’ – which I’m guessing is the brand in the UK in the early 90’s (Chelsea sponsors etc) – this sat outside the portfolio of Bass Brewers (the former incarnation of Coors Brewers in the UK) and as such we don’t have information as to what decisions were taken with its UK distributors at that time.
As for the move from a 5% ‘Coors Fine Light Beer’ to the current 4.5% Coors Light – this was informed by increasing evidence of drinkers moving to lighter tasting products, and of a move away from stronger premium lagers. The move also enables better consistent branding and activities across the world.
Hope that helps some. Thanks again for your interest.
Cheers
Steve, Coors Light
So if Coors don’t even know when the original stopped being sold, it won’t be easy to find out!
Be sure to ask your own question by leaving a comment, going on the message board, or on the contact page.
— Gearóid
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Very informative and well written! Nice work.
— Dara · Oct 7, 01:13 PM · #
Very thorough. All this talk makes me want a coors original, if only it still existed.
— Paul · Oct 8, 06:23 PM · #
A little story ..A few years ago I was travelling on a train from york to aberdeen enroute to my job offshore .. at the same table on the train was an American couple ..She asked her man to go and get her a beer ..He came back with a can of Mcewans export …warm and flat! .She complained and when asked said she was from Golden Colorado and would love a Coors… I had 4 cans in my bag, very cold we shared ‘em – she did tell me that in Golden on every Thursday afternoon – The brewery opened to allow teachers in for free beer . Now that is what I call civic resposibility
— John Vaughan · Jan 25, 07:53 AM · #