Molson Coors continues making beer at striking plant

Molson Coors is proceeding with production of beer products at its Forth Worth, Texas brewery — with the help of salaried workers and other employees — despite 420 workers being on strike earlier this week, the company told Food Dive.

At the Consumer Analyst Group of New York conference in Boca Raton, Florida on Wednesday, Molson Coors CEO Gavin Hattersley said the company was not able to reach a deal with the Fort Worth-area Teamsters union despite negotiations. The CEO told attendees the company feels good about its prospects for handling the strike, as it had a “very comprehensive” contingency plan it had ready to roll out.

“We packaged beer. We brewed beer. We delivered beer. And in fact, we actually delivered a little more than our contingency plan actually suggested we should. So the brewery is off to a great start. We’ve got five other breweries that we can shift volume to if we need to,” Hattersley said.

Tracey Joubert, the beverage giant’s chief financial officer, added that the impact of the strike is “immaterial right now.”

As the maker of Coors Light and Blue Moon deals with the impact of the strike, an even larger one could be on the horizon and roil the beer industry as March approaches. Next week, roughly 5,000 workers at AB InBev’s twelve plants across the U.S. could go on strike, something the Teamsters union said it is ready for. In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Wednesday, the union said Anheuser-Busch has 8 days to negotiate a better contract for workers or the strike would begin.