Seeks Nationwide Distribution by 1990 : Coors Plans to Build Brewery in Virginia

Adolph Coors Co. reported Wednesday that it will build a brewery in Rockingham County, Va., beginning with the construction of a $70-million beer packaging and distribution facility slated for completion early in 1987.

Corporate officers--making the announcement in a joint news conference televised by satellite to reporters and Coors workers in Golden, Harrisonburg, Va., and New York--said construction of the packaging plant will begin in the spring. It will be the first phase of the brewery project.

While no target date has been set for operation of a new Virginia brewery, company officials said, the firm has set a target date of 1990 for nationwide distribution of Coors products.

Long marketed only west of the Mississippi--and carrying a mystique in those years in areas where it wasn’t easy to obtain--Coors now is sold in 44 states and the District of Columbia.

For 112 years, all Coors beer has been produced at Golden, at “the little brewery that my grandfather founded,” company Chairman William Coors said.

$6-Million Payroll

“We will soon have a second home, and it is my happy task to announce that the Adolph Coors board of directors has authorized the construction of our long-hoped-for Shenandoah brewery near Elkton, Va.,” he said.

The total brewery cost was not announced.

It was disclosed that the packaging facility would have a payroll of $6 million a year and employ 230 people when it is completed. Until the brewery is completed, beer will continue to be brewed only at the Colorado plant and will be shipped to the distribution center in Virginia by refrigerated rail cars, officials said.

Coors spokesmen estimated that the packaging plant could generate more than $1 million in various taxes for Virginia, and they said 300 to 400 jobs will be created through construction, with a $10-million building payroll.

They stressed that the financing for the new plant has been built up within the company and will not be sought through outside sources.

Plans for the Virginia brewery initially were laid in 1978 and 1979. The land, 2,235 acres, was purchased in 1981 in Rockingham County. Coors said it was hoped at that time that the new brewery would be operational by now, but he said a “depressed beer industry” in the intervening years had delayed the proposal.

Acknowledging that trends have been toward reduced per-capita consumption of all types of alcoholic beverages, Coors said that “Coors simply must get a larger percentage of the market” for brewed products.

He said the Colorado-based brewery is “a growing company, a strong company with a great future.”

And Peter Coors, the company’s brewery division president, said in Virginia that 1985 has been an “outstanding” sales year, with an 18.9% increase in net sales during the first half of the year and a substantial increase in earnings, along with expansion into seven states.

Coors can produce enough beer to meet demand at Golden for some time, he said, but has had difficulty making packaging capacity keep up. Coors is the nation’s fifth-largest brewer and lays claim to having the largest single brewery in the world, at Golden.