Coopers Brewery

19th century

The brewery was established by Thomas Cooper in 1862 at his home in the Adelaide suburb of Norwood.[1] He brewed his first recorded batch on 13 May 1862.

In 1881 the brewery relocated to larger, commercial facilities at Leabrook.

Thomas died in 1897. In his will, after bequests to his wife, daughters and youngest sons, he left all his property to his four eldest surviving sons, John, Christopher, Samuel and Stanley, under instructions to "carry on my business as Brewers under the form of 'Thomas Cooper & Sons' as partners".[2]

20th century

Each time one of the partners retired or died, a new partnership agreement needed to be drawn up. This became unwieldy, so in 1923, the partners decided to incorporate with limited liability. An agreement was drawn up where the capital of the company was declared as £39,000, and 39,000 £1 shares were distributed. 15,953 of the shares were designated as class "A", and 15,953 as class "B". Directors were to be appointed equally by holders of "A" and "B" shares.[3]

The company went through the doldrums during the recession of the late 1880s, a boom time in the 1920s, the doldrums during the Great Depression, and mixed fortunes through World War II and the 1950s. By the 1960s, the brewery was still producing much the same products as in the 1880s, but the brewing environment, and consumer demand, had changed.

1962: South Australian Brewery share swap

There had been much consolidation of breweries in South Australia since Coopers was established, and the South Australian Brewing Company and Coopers & Sons were the only breweries remaining in Adelaide. As both were attractive takeover targets, in 1962 (after 100 years of Cooper family sole ownership), the two companies decided to do a mutually beneficial share swap in order to reduce the risk of takeover. The traditional South Australian market leader had been the South Australian Brewing Company. The share swap gave SA Brewing a 25% interest in Coopers ("C" and "D" class shares), and Coopers received 291,404 SA Brewing shares (2.65%). The Coopers board of directors was increased from four to five, with SA Brewing's "D" shares having the right to elect the fifth director.[4] After consulting the SA Brewing board and receiving their support, Coopers sold their SA Brewing shares in 1984, (at a substantial profit). SA Brewing continued to hold their 25% interest in Coopers.[5]

In the early 1960s, demand for Coopers Ales was flat, had been for years in the past, and looked like it would be for years into the future. The company strongly considered adding a Lager to their range. The older members of the board were highly resistant to such change, and, as this would be in competition with SA Brewing, the new board member was also resistant.

1987: 125th anniversary

To celebrate the 125th anniversary, the board commissioned Adelaide historian Alison Painter,[7][8] (wife of John Painter, an engineer employed by Coopers in 1968 to oversee the upgrading of the brewery plant and the reduction in plant maintenance costs),[9] to write "Jolly Good Ale and Old : The history of the Coopers Brewery 1862–1987".

1993–1995: Lion Nathan takeover of SA Brewing

SA Brewing Holdings subsequently diversified into manufacturing and wine, and then refocused to form Southcorp, Southcorp Wines, and SA Brewing. SA Brewing was acquired by trans-Tasman Lion Nathan in 1993. After two years of negotiations, in 1995 family members purchased all of the "D" class shares (with their right to elect a director), and some of the "C" class shares, and Coopers Brewery Ltd purchased the remainder of the "C" class shares.[10]

Thus, SA Brewing had a seat on the Cooper's board of directors from 1962 to 1995, but in 1995 the Cooper family once again became sole owners of the company.[11]

21st century

2001: Regency Park

In 2001, the brewery relocated to much larger premises at Regency Park.[14]

Since 2003, the Regency Park brewery has used a gas turbine based cogeneration plant to supply steam and electric power requirements. Fired with natural gas with a thermal efficiency of 80%, the $6.2 million plant produces power with a 90% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions compared to a separate electricity generation and steam production plant. The plant is operated by AGL Energy and is rated at 4.4 MW. Generation above the brewery's electrical load of 1.2 MW is fed back into the grid.[15]

2005: Lion Nathan takeover bid

In late 2005, Lion Nathan made an unsolicited takeover bid for Coopers, which was strongly opposed by the board and by the Cooper family. It was ultimately rejected at an Extraordinary General Meeting when the holders of 93.4% of the shares voted in favour of permanently removing the 3rd tier purchasing rights of Lion Nathan, effectively preventing any current or future takeover bid.[16][17][18][19]

Prince Alfred College held 70,000 shares (5%) in Coopers Brewery, which had been received in a bequest. At the time of the unsolicited takeover bid by Lion Nathan, these shares were valued at between $18 million and $22 million and considered to be a possible blocking stake.[20]

2017: Bible Society / same-sex marriage issue

On 9 March 2017 Coopers Brewery launched a limited edition premium beer (in both can and carton) to commemorate the bicentenary of the Bible Society.[22][23] Public outcry arose over the use of the Coopers Brewery branded beer in a video[24] of the Bible Society debate over the issue of same-sex marriage.[25][26][27] Coopers Brewery issued two statements on 12 March 2017 in response to the backlash[28][29]

2022–2024: new visitor centre

In 2021, Coopers announced an expansion of its warehousing facilities at Regency Park. In April 2022, it announced a major expansion of the Regency Park site, creating a visitor centre, microbrewery, whisky distillery, and outdoor dining area.[35] The estimated cost of the upgrade was A$50 million, but it grew to A$70 million, and took longer than expected to reach completion. The new visitors' centre, designed by Studio Nine Architects, opened on 28 August 2024, but the first whisky will not be ready for sale before 2028.[36][37]

Pale Ale

In the twenty-first century Pale Ale is Coopers' most heavily marketed, most recognised, and most successful beer.

Thomas Cooper

Thomas Cooper (1826–1897) was born in Carleton, North Yorkshire, and is the originator of the Adelaide Cooper family.[53] Thomas married twice, leading to two branches of the family, known as the "A side" and "B side" of the family. This has led to the company having multiple classes of shares with different voting rights.[54]

In 1849 he married Ann Laycock Brown (1827–1872) in the Wesleyan Chapel in Skipton, and they had three living children when they arrived in Port Adelaide on 24 August 1852. Their first home was a rented two-room cottage near the Rising Sun Inn on Bridge Street in the then village of

Cooper & Sons – 1862-1897

Thomas started recording his brews in 1862, and by the late 1860s he was employing one man, and his teenage son William. After initial success and expansion, in the late 1860s Thomas had many problems with the quality of the brews, and the business did not fare well for the next decade. In 1870 he sold all his property to meet his debts, and moved to rented premises in High Street, Kensington. By 1877, Thomas had resolved many of the quality problems, and in 1878 sales were back up to the level of the good years of the 1860s. In 1878, second son John went to work in the brewery full-time.[68]

Although Thomas continued to refuse to sell to public houses, and the licensing laws required his minimum sale to be five gallons, his customer base continued to expand, and on 23 July 1881, the first ale was brewed at the much larger newly purchased and built premises in Statenborough Street, Leabrook. Although eldest son William died in 1882 (aged 32), by this time second and third sons Thomas and Christopher were working in the brewery, and fourth son Joseph joined them when he finished his schooling. Under John's influence and monitoring, there was greater uniformity of the materials used, and the quality of the products steadily improved. In 1882, production increased to 30,000 gallons, and in the mid-1880s, 48,000 gallons, with the brewery employing seven men. The South Australian economic depression of the 1880s and 1890s suppressed demand, and for the next 10 years, production was level at around 30,000 gallons per year. Thomas retired from general work in the early 1890s, with John running the business with Christopher. Joseph died in 1888 (aged 25). Fifth son Samuel and sixth son Stanley (the eldest of second wife Sarah's children) came to the brewery when they finished school, as did William's son, Will, and younger sons Frederic, Charles and Walter.