citations for verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . december 2009 learn how and when to remove this template message coors brewing company industry beverages founded 1873 143 years ago founder adolph coors and jacob schueler headquarters golden colorado united states area served north america united kingdom australia and ireland key people leo kiely and peter swinburn products beers revenue 5 billion u.s. in sales parent molson coors brewing company website http www.coors.com the coors brewing company is a regional division of the world s seventh largest 1 brewing company the molson coors brewing company . the operations in the united states are now part of the joint venture with sabmiller called millercoors . 2 coors operates a brewery in golden colorado that is the largest single brewery facility in the world . 3 contents 1 history 1.1 founding 1.2 prohibition 1.3 products 1.4 mergers 1.5 shenandoah expansion 1.6 labor issues 1.7 minority issues 2 political influence 3 brands 4 joint venture with sabmiller 5 business names 6 ceos 7 marketing 8 see also 9 references 10 bibliography 11 external links history edit founding edit in 1873 german immigrants adolph coors and jacob schueler established a brewery in golden colorado after buying a recipe for a pilsner style beer from a czech immigrant william silhan . 4 coors invested 2 000 in the operation and schueler invested 18 000 . in 1880 coors bought out his partner and became sole owner of the brewery . prohibition edit ad for coors malted milk produced in 1918 . the coors brewing company managed to survive prohibition relatively intact . years before the volstead act went into effect nationwide adolph coors with sons adolph jr. grover and herman established the adolph coors brewing and manufacturing company which included herold porcelain and other ventures . the brewery itself was converted into a malted milk and near beer production facility . coors sold much of the malted milk to the mars candy company for the production of sweets . manna the company s non alcoholic beer replacement was a near beer similar to current non alcoholic beverages . however coors and his sons relied heavily on the porcelain company as well as a cement and real estate company to keep the coors brewing company afloat . by 1933 after the end of prohibition the coors brewery was one of only a handful of breweries that had survived . all of the non brewery assets of the adolph coors company were spun off between 1989 and 1992 . the descendant of the original herold porcelain ceramics business continues to operate as coorstek . 5 products edit for much of its history coors beer was a regional product and its marketing area was confined to the american west . 6 7 8 while california and texas were part of the 11 state distribution area washington and montana were not added until 1976 6 9 & oregon did not approve sales in grocery stores until 1985 . 10 11 12 13 this gave it mystique and made it a novelty particularly on the east coast 14 15 and visitors returning from the western states often brought back a case . 16 this iconic status was reflected in the 1977 movie smokey and the bandit which centered around an illegal shipment of coors from texas to georgia . the company finally established nationwide distribution in the united states in the mid 1980s . 17 in 1959 coors became the first american brewer to use an all aluminum two piece beverage can . 3 also in 1959 the company abandoned pasteurization and began to use sterile filtration to stabilize its beer . 3 14 coors currently operates the largest aluminum can producing plant in the world known as the rocky mountain metal container rmmc in golden . rmmc is a joint venture between ball metal and coors having been founded in 2003 . in the 1970s coors invented the litter free push tab can 14 in place of the ring pull tab . 18 19 however consumers disliked the top and it was discontinued soon afterward . coors light was introduced in 1978 . 3 the longtime slogan of silver bullet to describe it does not describe the beer but rather the silver colored can in which the beer is packaged . coors light was once produced in yellow bellied cans like the full strength coors but when the yellow coloring was removed and the can was left mostly silver many dubbed the beer the silver bullet . coors brewery in golden colorado coors brewery in golden colorado coors formerly bass brewery in tadcaster north yorkshire uk coors brewery in alton hampshire uk which closed in 2015 20 mergers edit in 2005 coors was rated the third largest producer of beer in the united states and the second largest brewer in the united kingdom through its subsidiary coors brewers limited . 21 on july 22 2004 the company announced it would be merging with canadian brewer molson . the merger was completed february 9 2005 with the merged company being named molson coors brewing company . shenandoah expansion edit in august 2004 the coors brewing company announced plans to add brewing capacity to the shenandoah beer packaging facility in elkton virginia by early 2007 . 22 coors officials stated that this would bring brewing capacity much closer to our important east coast markets and distributors . 23 labor issues edit in april 1977 the brewery workers union at coors representing 1 472 employees went on strike . the brewery kept operating with supervisors and 250 to 300 union members including one member of the union executive board who ignored the strike . soon after coors announced that it would hire replacements for the striking workers . 24 about 700 workers quit the picket line to go back to work and coors replaced the remaining 500 workers keeping the beer production process uninterrupted . 25 in december 1978 the workers at coors voted by greater than a two to one ratio to decertify the union ending 44 years of union representation at coors . because the strike was by then more than a year old striking workers could not vote in the election . 26 labor unions organized a boycott to punish coors for its labor practices . 27 one tactic employed by the unions was a push for states to pass laws banning the sale of unpasteurized canned and bottled beer . 28 because coors was the only major brewer at the time not pasteurizing its canned and bottled beer such laws would hurt only coors . 29 sales of coors suffered during the decade long labor union boycott although coors stated that declining sales were also due to an industry wide downturn in beer sales and to increased competition . to maintain production coors expanded its sales area from the 18 western states to which it had marketed for years to nationwide distribution . 30 this was completed in 1991 with indiana being the last state for the brand to appear . 31 the afl cio ended its boycott of coors in august 1987 after negotiations with pete coors head of brewery operations . the details of the settlement were not divulged but were said to include an early union representation election in colorado and use of union workers to build the new coors brewery in virginia . 32 in 1988 the teamsters union which represented brewery workers at the top three us beer makers at the time anheuser busch miller and stroh gained enough signatures to trigger a union representation election inside the coors company . coors workers again rejected union representation by more than a two to one ratio . 33 minority issues edit mexican americans charged coors with discriminatory hiring practices following the passage of the civil rights act and launched a boycott of the company s products beginning in the late 1960s . labor unions and gay rights activists joined the boycott which lasted into the 1980s . 34 a federal lawsuit in 1975 by the equal employment opportunity commission 35 ended in a settlement with coors agreeing not to discriminate against blacks hispanics and women . 36 in 1977 coors was accused of firing gay and lesbian employees . 37 coors encouraged the organization of its gay and lesbian employees into the lesbian and gay employee resource lager in 1993 . 38 in may 1995 coors became the 21st publicly traded corporation in the united states to extend employee benefits to same sex partners . 39 when company chairman pete coors was criticized for the company s gay friendly policy during his 2004 republican primary campaign for a united states senate seat from colorado he defended the policy as a basic good business practice . 40 political influence edit according to russ bellant coors family members have played a prominent role in american politics and public policy supporting many conservative causes . such causes included providing a 250 000 grant in 1973 to found the heritage foundation 41 an influential conservative think tank and via its parent company the right leaning think tank american enterprise institute . chairman pete coors ran unsuccessfully for the united states senate from colorado in 2004 on the republican ticket . brands edit the examples and perspective in this section may not represent a worldwide view of the subject . you may improve this article discuss the issue on the talk page or create a new article as appropriate . april 2013 learn how and when to remove this template message main article molson coors brands coors is responsible for over twenty different brands of beer 42 in north america . the most notable of those brands are coors killian s caffrey s and blue moon . joint venture with sabmiller edit on 9 october 2007 sabmiller and molson coors brewing company announced a joint venture to be known as millercoors for their us operations that will market all of their products . 2 business names edit schueler & coors golden brewery 1873 1880 adolph coors golden brewery 1880 1913 adolph coors co. golden brewery 1909 1913 adolph coors brewing and malting company golden brewery 1913 1915 adolph coors company 1933 1989 coors brewing company 1989 2008 molson coors 2005 2008 parent company of cbc millercoors 2008 to present a joint venture rocky mountain metal container 2003 to present . a joint venture in aluminum can production with ball metal and coors . ceos edit adolph coors joseph coors douglas roy coors william coors frits van paasschen leo kiely current ceo of molson coors brewing company peter swinburn current ceo of coors brewing company marketing edit coors sponsored premiership side chelsea from 1994 to 1997 . the last competitive game that the club wore shirts bearing coors as sponsors was the 1997 fa cup final in which they beat middlesbrough 2 0 to end their 26 year wait for a major trophy . current affiliate carling was title sponsor of the premier league from 1993 to 2001 and since 2003 has sponsored the football league cup . the two brands are also former sponsors of rangers and celtic . the clubs have worn strips with coors light logos for exhibitions in north america while elsewhere the strips promoted carling which is not offered in the united states . coors is also the official beer sponsor of nascar and formerly the nfl until bud light replaced it in 2011 . 43 in addition to its official nascar sponsorship coors light has regularly sponsored cars in the series . they sponsored melling racing team sabco and most recently chip ganassi racing . drivers to have coors backing have included bill elliott who won the winston million in 1985 and the 1988 winston cup championship robby gordon sterling marlin kyle petty david stremme and regan smith .