Molson Coors Chairman Peter Coors took the extraordinary step of assailing the leaders of a major trade association, saying “The leadership of the Brewers Association does a great disservice to the entire beer value chain by attempting to pit one part of the industry against another.
“It is insulting to those of us who don’t meet the clever criteria of your self-proclaimed definition of “craft brewer,” Coors said, asking:
“Should the highly educated and trained brewers who work for large brewers or the breweries that have been purchased by them be included in the disdain you seem to have for them? Should the quality of beers produced by them, including hundreds of quality medals be insulted by the Brewers Association simply because the parent company isn’t part of your ever-changing “club?” Didn’t all large brewers start as craft brewers? Don’t all craft brewers wish to grow and be prosperous?
“ We share distributors, many of whom would not be able to distribute Brewers Association beers without the scale provided by the large brewers. You claim that your members are precluded from distribution at retail, while I visit account after account that do not carry any “big brewer” products.”
The letter was first reported by Beer Business Daily and published in the MillerCoors Behind the Beer News blog.
We asked BA for a response, but, as of press time hadn’t received one.