US brewer Coors, the surprise victor in the bidding battle for Carling Brewers, is giving its total commitment to the current management and plans to retain the Carling name for the business. Coors senior vice president Rob Klugman told The Grocer: "We are going to leave them to get on with it. It is a great management team and we hope that they will be staying on. We have invested £1.2bn and we plan to make the most of it." Carling was the division of Bass which Interbrew was forced to sell by the UK competition authorities. Klugman said developing the Coors portfolio in the UK was not the company's primary aim from this purchase, although opportunities would be exploited ­ Coors has its Light brand in limited regional distribution. Klugman said: "Carling Brewers' volume share and profitability is growing and we see no reason for this to change." Chief executive Leo Kiely added: "This business offers operating margins roughly double what we achieve in our existing Coors operation. Despite what some people think of the UK beer market, this acquisition is a growth story. The Carling and Grolsch brands and some of the others are growing very nicely, with attractive margins and strong cash flow." Speculation had been rife that Carling would be snapped up by the likes of Heineken and others who joined the bidding included Grolsch, US drinks distributor Constellation Brands ­ owner of Matthew Clark ­ and UK private equity firms Cinven, CVC and Apax. Instead Coors, based in Golden, Colorado, has paid £1.2bn for the rights to Carling and its breweries, as well as Worthington, Caffreys and the UK rights to Grolsch, which all add up to a 19% share of the UK beer market. Now the third biggest US brewer (behind Anheuser-Busch and Miller), it is also the second largest UK company (behind Scottish and Newcastle). The deal, announced on Christmas Eve, leaves Interbrew with the Bass Brewers businesses in Scotland and Ireland as well as the global rights to Bass Ale and Tennent's. These, together with former Whitbread brands Stella Artois and Boddingtons, which it bought 18 months ago, give Interbrew a 16% share of UK beer sales. It bought Bass for £2.3bn but when the deal was blocked by the regulatory authorities it had to set aside £750m for any losses incurred in the resale of parts of the business. {{NEWS }}

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