Molson Coors Brewing Co. plans to employ 150 people in a new global business service center on its Milwaukee Miller Valley campus.
The Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. is awarding the company up to $1.7 million in state income tax credits over the next four years along with a $750,000 workforce training grant. The actual award amounts will be contingent on the number of jobs created through September 2021 and the company’s job training costs.
Mark Maley, a WEDC spokesman, said 65 of the positions would be new hires while 85 would be MillerCoors employees transferring to Molson Coors over the next two to three years. When WEDC and Molson Coors, executed the contract earlier this year, the company itself only had one employee in the state. It is not uncommon for WEDC to award tax credits that include job retention, although Maley said this award was entirely for job creation.
MillerCoors is the U.S. business unit for Denver-based Molson Coors, which acquired SABMiller’s share of the joint venture last year. The subsidiary employs 1,400 people in Milwaukee and serves markets in 10 states from the brewery, according to a September presentation to the city. Roughly 400,000 cases are packaged at the brewery daily.
“Milwaukee was chosen because there is enough space to accommodate our needs, and there is an existing shared services center which has been successfully supporting MillerCoors for many years,” Marty Maloney, a MillerCoors spokesman, said when asked why the city was chosen.
Molson Coors was also considering moving the global services center to Kentucky, according to WEDC documents.
Molson Coors will spend $600,000 to establish the center and $2.45 million on training. It will provide support in finance, accounting, human resources and procurement for the company’s North American operations. Average wages range from $26.92 to $48.08 per hour
“This new facility – along with the company’s other recent investments in Milwaukee – illustrates MillerCoors continued commitment to the city and state,” Gov. Scott Walker said.
The company also broke ground this spring on a $50 million expansion of its Tenth Street brewery near downtown Milwaukee. That project is expected to create 65 new jobs while expanding capacity from 25,000 to 250,000 barrels per year. The Tenth Street brewery primarily produces Leinenkugel’s and other craft beer.
The company has also made $45 million in upgrades to its main Milwaukee brewery this year and $300 million over the last 10 years.
“We are thrilled to further our investment in Milwaukee,” said Kelly Grebe, chief legal officer at MillerCoors. “This is the city we’ve called home for more than 160 years and the arrival of the GBS Center is just the latest example of our commitment to Milwaukee and its residents.”
This story has been updated after BizTimes received additional information on the award from WEDC.
