Coopers Brewery

Coopers Brewery Limited, known simply as Coopers, is an Australian brewery based in the Adelaide suburb of Regency Park. Established by Thomas Cooper in 1862 and still owned by the Cooper Family, it is the largest Australian-owned brewery. Coopers is known for making a variety of beers, primarily their pale and sparkling ales, as well as being the world's largest producer of canned beer concentrate, used in homebrewing. Originally based in the eastern-suburb of Norwood, the brewery moved to nearby Leabrook in 1881, where it remained until its relocation to Regency Park in 2001.

History

19th century

The brewery was established by Thomas Cooper in 1862 at his home in the Adelaide suburb of Norwood. He brewed his first recorded batch on 13 May 1862.
In 1881 the brewery relocated to larger, commercial facilities at Leabrook.
Thomas died in 1897. In his will, after bequests to his wife, daughters and youngest sons, he left all his property to his four eldest surviving sons, John, Christopher, Samuel and Stanley, under instructions to "carry on my business as Brewers under the form of 'Thomas Cooper & Sons' as partners".

20th century

Each time one of the partners retired or died, a new partnership agreement needed to be drawn up. This became unwieldy, so in 1923, the partners decided to incorporate with limited liability. An agreement was drawn up where the capital of the company was declared as £39,000, and 39,000 £1 shares were distributed. 15,953 of the shares were designated as class "A", and 15,953 as class "B". Directors were to be appointed equally by holders of "A" and "B" shares.
The company went through the doldrums during the recession of the late 1880s, a boom time in the 1920s, the doldrums during the Great Depression, and mixed fortunes through World War II and the 1950s. By the 1960s, the brewery was still producing much the same products as in the 1880s, but the brewing environment, and consumer demand, had changed.

1962: South Australian Brewery share swap

There had been much consolidation of breweries in South Australia since Coopers was established, and the South Australian Brewing Company and Coopers & Sons were the only breweries remaining in Adelaide. As both were attractive takeover targets, in 1962, the two companies decided to do a mutually beneficial share swap in order to reduce the risk of takeover. The traditional South Australian market leader had been the South Australian Brewing Company. The share swap gave SA Brewing a 25% interest in Coopers, and Coopers received 291,404 SA Brewing shares. The Coopers board of directors was increased from four to five, with SA Brewing's "D" shares having the right to elect the fifth director. After consulting the SA Brewing board and receiving their support, Coopers sold their SA Brewing shares in 1984,. SA Brewing continued to hold their 25% interest in Coopers.
In the early 1960s, demand for Coopers Ales was flat, had been for years in the past, and looked like it would be for years into the future. The company strongly considered adding a Lager to their range. The older members of the board were highly resistant to such change, and, as this would be in competition with SA Brewing, the new board member was also resistant. It was not until 1967 that the board voted to go ahead with the new plant, with the SA Brewing representative not voting. After 105 years of only brewing ale and stout, "Gold Crown", Coopers first Lager, was available for sale in 1968.
In 1970, the retail price of a bottle of Coopers ale was 41 cents:

11.82 cents was brewery costs
19.55 cents was excise and taxes
8.75 cents went to the retailer
0.88 cents was the brewery profit.
1987: 125th anniversary

To celebrate the 125th anniversary, the board commissioned Adelaide historian Alison Painter,, to write "Jolly Good Ale and Old : The history of the Coopers Brewery 1862–1987".

1993–1995: Lion Nathan takeover of SA Brewing

SA Brewing Holdings subsequently diversified into manufacturing and wine, and then refocused to form Southcorp, Southcorp Wines, and SA Brewing. SA Brewing was acquired by trans-Tasman Lion Nathan in 1993. After two years of negotiations, in 1995 family members purchased all of the "D" class shares, and some of the "C" class shares, and Coopers Brewery Ltd purchased the remainder of the "C" class shares.
Thus, SA Brewing had a seat on the Cooper's board of directors from 1962 to 1995, but in 1995 the Cooper family once again became sole owners of the company.

21st century

2001: Regency Park

In 2001, the brewery relocated to much larger premises at Regency Park.
Since 2003, the Regency Park brewery has used a gas turbine based cogeneration plant to supply steam and electric power requirements. Fired with natural gas with a thermal efficiency of 80%, the $6.2 million plant produces power with a 90% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions compared to a separate electricity generation and steam production plant. The plant is operated by AGL Energy and is rated at 4.4 MW. Generation above the brewery's electrical load of 1.2 MW is fed back into the grid.

2005: Lion Nathan takeover bid

In late 2005, Lion Nathan made an unsolicited takeover bid for Coopers, which was strongly opposed by the board and by the Cooper family. It was ultimately rejected at an Extraordinary General Meeting when the holders of 93.4% of the shares voted in favour of permanently removing the 3rd tier purchasing rights of Lion Nathan, effectively preventing any current or future takeover bid.
Prince Alfred College held 70,000 shares in Coopers Brewery, which had been received in a bequest. At the time of the unsolicited takeover bid by Lion Nathan, these shares were valued at between $18 million and $22 million and considered to be a possible blocking stake.
With Lion Nathan wholly owned by Kirin Brewing Company since 2009, and Fosters owned by SABMiller since 2011, Coopers is the only wholly Australian-owned major brewery, and the largest.
Coopers released a limited-edition "Celebration Ale" to celebrate the 150th anniversary, as well as celebratory labels on their other beers.

2017: Bible Society / same-sex marriage issue

On 9 March 2017 Coopers Brewery launched a limited edition premium beer to commemorate the bicentenary of the Bible Society. Public outcry arose over the use of the Coopers Brewery branded beer in a video of the Bible Society debate over the issue of same-sex marriage. Coopers Brewery issued two statements on 12 March 2017 in response to the backlash and also posted a tweet saying they were not trying to push a religious message. Various venues in Melbourne and Sydney subsequently announced they would no longer be stocking Coopers beers. On 14 March Coopers issued a further statement declaring they were cancelling the release of the Bible Society commemorative cans and joining Australian Marriage Equality.

2022–2024: new visitor centre

In 2021, Coopers announced an expansion of its warehousing facilities at Regency Park. In April 2022, it announced a major expansion of the Regency Park site, creating a visitor centre, microbrewery, whisky distillery, and outdoor dining area. The estimated cost of the upgrade was A$50 million, but it grew to A$70 million, and took longer than expected to reach completion. The new visitors' centre, designed by Studio Nine Architects, opened on 28 August 2024, but the first whisky will not be ready for sale before 2028.

Beers

Coopers beers are widely available on tap in South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales, and in some bars in the rest of Australia as speciality beers. They are widely available in bottles and cans around Australia and New Zealand, and occasionally at specialist importers in other countries. The distribution of the beers outside of South Australia has been largely promoted since 2003 by the subsidiary Premium Beverages Pty Ltd.
Coopers bottled beers are characterised by their secondary fermentation technique – some yeast remains in the bottle after bottling – thus the bottled beer contains some sediment. There are three schools of thought with regard to the sediment – some drinkers like to mix the sediment throughout the beer by tipping or rolling the beer before drinking, while others prefer to decant the beer into a glass leaving the sediment at the base of the bottle. Coopers have made such choice a strong element in their marketing strategy. Some find that mixing the sediment results in a shaken beer and prefer not to mix the sediment at all, simply opening the bottle and drinking. The action of drinking from the bottle serves to distribute the sediment anyway without shaking one's beer up.
Coopers also produce a large range of homebrew kits. Among these are, English Bitter, Dark Ale, Real Ale and Lager, as well as several others. Coopers homebrew kits provide the starting place for many new homebrewers across the world and are a highly successful brand.
The company also produces a range of malt extracts and concentrate for homebrewers.

Pale Ale

In the twenty-first century Pale Ale is Coopers' most heavily marketed, most recognised, and most successful beer. Although it has only been produced under this name since 1989, it did have a number of similar predecessors from which it can claim a pedigree, with names including "Light Brew Sparkling Ale", and "Light Dinner Ale". The beer occupies a unique place in the local market – it is seen as being somewhere between a 'craft beer' and the traditional mass-produced lagers.

Distribution

Coopers distributes Carlsberg, Kronenbourg, Mythos, and Sapporo in Australia.
In 2022, it was announced that Coopers had been awarded the brewing rights to Miller Genuine Draft in Australia, which includes Miller Chill. Distribution rights for the Miller range were awarded to Perth-based Good Drinks Australia. In addition the partnership secured the licensed brewing rights to Coors Light.