Molson Coors building $65M packing warehouse at Fort Worth Brewery that will add jobs
Molson Coors has broken ground on a $65 million expansion of its Fort Worth Brewery to invest in its growing hard seltzer business.
The new packing warehouse will add to the company’s local workforce, which has been around 500 employees in recent years. The number of new jobs wasn’t immediately available Friday.
The 200,000-square-foot warehouse will allow the brewery to remove the need for third-party vendors for final pack assembly, which the company said it believes will reduce shipping costs and transportation times.
“This expansion truly represents the next step toward strengthening our in-house hard seltzer capabilities, as its one of many recent investments we made at Fort Worth aimed at growing our above premium portfolio and transforming the company’s offerings to meet consumers’ changing preferences,” said Jim Crawford, vice president and plant manager, in a statement.
The new facility’s variety pack system can package up to six flavors in 12- or 24-pack configurations and repack up to 1.5 million barrels annually, the company said. The warehouse also could be used for future brands.
Last year, the Pennsylvania-based company that makes Yuengling announced its partnership with Molson Coors would bring production of the popular East Coast beer to the Fort Worth Brewery, which is near Interstate 35W and I-20 in the south part of the city.
The popularity of lower-calorie hard seltzers has exploded in recent years. In 2020, the company said it would add a new canning line and filtration system in Fort Worth to expand production of its Vizzy hard seltzer and Coors Seltzer.
The brewery opened in 1964 and is known as the birthplace of the Miller Lite beer brand in the 1970s. In addition to hard seltzer, the sprawling manufacturing site makes Miller beer brands as well as Coors Light, Blue Moon, Hamm’s and Revolver Blood and Honey.
In 1979, the Fort Worth brewery underwent another massive expansion. At one point, it employed about 1,300 people.
Construction on the new warehouse is expected to start later this year.
This story was originally published June 3, 2022 at 5:12 PM.
