The Molson Way

THE MOLSON WAY

A rare glimpse inside the family brewing empire

In the big hall that bears his name in the brewery he started 221 years ago, a famous portrait of John Molson keeps watch. Painted in 1826, some 40 years after he invested in a little log brewery, Molson wears the countenance of success. Deservedly so. The brewery had expanded several times by this point, and his empire included steamships, a luxury hotel and a theatre. Molson was also president of both the Bank of Montreal and Montreal General Hospital. Look carefully at the picture and you can see what appears to be a little smirk, a curl of the lip, perhaps the beginnings of a self-satisfied smile.

Six generations and 181 years later, Geoff Molson waltzes into the Montreal brewer's Bicentennial Room for a mid-morning interview carrying a bucket of popcorn and a cola. There's a touch of John the Elder in 36-year-old Geoff, but whatever cold formality is left in the museum-like room quickly disappears. Company chairman Eric Molson's youngest son isn't exactly gregarious, but he displays a great deal of enthusiasm about the beer business, hockey and the grand old family firm he joined eight years ago.

This is clearly not Geoff's great-great-great-great grandfather's Molson. For one thing, his company is now Molson Coors Brewing Co. (NYSE: TAP), after a hotly debated merger with the third-largest U.S. brewer in 2004. For another, while Eric remained chairman following the deal and works from Montreal, Coors CEO Leo Kiely runs the combined entity from Denver. Molson Coors is clearly a product of 21st-century globalization and industry consolidation, yet each of the two companies is fighting to keep its identity, which is rooted in the past.

Take Molson's Montreal headquarters on Rue Notre-Dame. It sits on top of the original brewery, and the caves where the beer was made are still there. If you can't sense the past, some of the original brewery's stones, which make up part of the floor in the...