Pabst Brewing Company has completed the purchase of MolsonCoors’ old Irwindale brewery. Both partners reported that Irwindale Brew Yard, a subsidiary of Pabst Molson Coors Brewing Company purchased the 40-year old brewery including plant equipment and machinery and the underlying land in California for USD 150 million.
On January 6, 2020, Molson Coors announced to cease production at its Irwindale brewery by September 2020. Since the brewery was also used to contract brew beers from Pabst, Molson Coors granted Pabst an option to buy the brewery (inside.beer, 6.1.2020). On May 4, Pabst exercised this option but said the purchase was subject to the satisfaction of certain customary closing conditions (inside.beer, 5.5.2020) which seem to be resolved by now.
The Irwindale brewery, which opened in 1980, was Molson Coors’ lowest-volume brewery in the United States. In 2019 the plant produced 4.8 million barrels (5.6 million hl) and shipped products to 261 distributors. Brands brewed at the facility included Coors Light, Miller Lite, Miller High Life, MGD, Steel Reserve, Miller64 and several brands for Pabst.“The sale of the Irwindale facility allows us to streamline our operations for greater efficiency across our network and further strengthen our liquidity,” said Molson Coors chief financial officer, Tracey Joubert.
Molson Coors has meanwhile transitioned the production to its breweries in Fort Worth, Texas and Golden, Colorado. The latter is currently going through a multi-hundred-million-dollar overhaul to improve brewing performance, flexibility and productivity (inside.beer, 7.10.2020).
Adam Sher, General Counsel at Pabst and Irwindale Brew Yard President said: “We are pleased to complete the acquisition of the Irwindale Brewery property. We are continuing to conduct our feasibility study to determine whether there is a path to reopen and operate the brewery at a later date and are committed to choosing a path forward that is in the best interest of all our stakeholders.”
