Coopers Brewery
 |
|
| Unlisted Public | |
| Industry | Alcoholic beverage |
| Founded | 1862 |
| Founder | Thomas Cooper |
| Headquarters | Adelaide, Australia |
| Products | Beer, Homebrew |
| Owner | The Cooper Family |
| Website | http://www.coopers.com.au/ |
Coopers Brewery Limited, the largest Australian-owned brewery, is based in the Adelaide suburb of Regency Park. Coopers is known for making a variety of beers, the most famous of which are its Pale Ale and Sparkling Ale. The brewery sold 69.7 million litres of beer in the 2013 financial year. It is also the world's largest producer of homebrewing equipment. Its shares are primarily owned by the extended Cooper family, and the company's constitution and classes of shares makes it difficult to sell shares outside the family.
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".
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.
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 (after 100 years of Cooper family sole ownership), 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 ("C" and "D" class shares), and Coopers received 291,404 SA Brewing shares (2.65%). 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, (at a substantial profit). SA Brewing continued to hold their 25% interest in Coopers.
...
Wikipedia