1985: $7.125/Share 2011: $47.24
Adolf Coors became an orphan at the age of 15 and had to support his younger siblings by working at a local brewery in a small Prussian town that today is the city of Wuppertal, Germany.
Adolph continued to work in the brewing industry until he was 21, when war and unrest in his country caused him to seek opportunity in America. He stowed away on a ship, and arrived in the United States in 1868 with no money and no job. From there Coors headed west to look for employment; he found one odd job after another..
In 1873, German immigrants Coors and Jacob Schueler, a Denver businessman, established a brewery in Golden, Colorado. Coors invested $2,000; Schueler invested $18,000. In 1880, Coors bought out his partner, becoming sole owner of the company.
For much of its history, Coors beer was a regional product; with its marketing area confined to the American west. This made it a novelty on the East Coast, and visitors returning from the western states often brought back a case. This iconic status was reflected in the 1977 movie Smokey and the Bandit, which centered around an illegal shipment of Coors being taken from Texas to Georgia. The company finally established nationwide distribution in the U.S. in the mid-1980s.
In 1959, Coors became the first American brewer to use an all-aluminum two-piece beverage can. Coors currently operates the largest aluminum can producing plant, known as the Rocky Mountain Metal Container, in the world in Golden, Colorado.
The longtime slogan of “Silver Bullet” to describe Coors Light came not from the beer but for the silver colored can in which the beer is packaged. Coors Light was once produced in the “yellow bellied” cans like Coors Banquet; however, when the yellow coloring was removed and the can was left mostly silver, many dubbed the beer “The Silver Bullet”.
Coors’ claim to success in the brewing business is based on what they refer to as the perfect ingredient: water from the Rocky Mountains. Since day one, Coors Brewing Company has marketed the beer in this way.
In 2005, Coors Brewing Company merged with Molson to become the fifth largest brewing company in the world. Today, Coors now has $6.2 billion in revenue and $13.5 billion in assets. Coors Brewing Company is another example of an immigrant success story, where persistence, timing, and smart investments can pay off in the long run.
If you know of a company that started small and is big today, leave a comment.
Phil Robertson, Editor
