The current head of Molson Coors Beverage Co has announced his intention to retire.
Gavin Hattersley (below), who has been CEO of the multi-category group since September 2019, will call time on his career in alcohol, which commenced in 1997, at the end of this year. The company has subsequently launched a search “led by the governance committee” for a replacement at the helm.
Hattersley, who started with South African Breweries 28 years ago, first arrived in the US in 2002, when SAB acquired the Miller business. He then became “heavily involved” with the foundation of MillerCoors, Molson Coors’ JV with SABMiller, as the company was then known, in 2008.
The takeover of SABMiller by AB InBev in late 2016 resulted in Molson Coors buying the JV outright, with Hattersley, who was by now CEO of MillerCoors, staying with the business and assuming the lead role at Molson Coors almost six years ago.
“Gavin has been a steady hand at the wheel as CEO, navigating through incredible challenges that no one could ever have predicted while guiding our company to growth … ,” said company chair Geoff Molson. “Our business today stands on the shoulders of the many generations of the Molson and Coors families who have come before us. Gavin has lived up to their rich legacy, and he will retire having left an indelible mark on our business and the global beer industry.
“We are incredibly appreciative of his leadership.”
In its latest set of results, from the 12 months of 2024, Molson Coors posted a flat sales performance on the year prior, coming in at US$11.63bn. Hattersley described the period as “another year of progress for Molson Coors”, while a plan was put in place to “aggressively premiumise our portfolio” and “scale and expand in ‘beyond-beer’”.
