UK – Molson Coors Beverage Company is set to become the first major UK brewer to produce all of its beers and ciders using 100% green electricity.

This is after the company signed a ten-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with RWE, which will see all of its UK operations powered by renewable electricity.

The move is a major step towards achieving Molson Coors’ 2025 sustainability goals, including its aim to reduce carbon emissions by 50% across all direct operations.

The brewer says that the renewable energy deal with RWA sees the business on track to meet that milestone in the UK four years ahead of schedule.

Molson Coor’s operations director, Western Europe, Fraser Thomson acknowledged the importance of sustainability to customers, assuring them that the company was doing everything in its power to reduce its impact on the environment.

“That’s why we’ve made such bold commitments to play our part in tackling climate change – because it is the right thing to do,” Thomson added.

As part of the PPA, 22 turbines at the Tween Bank wind farm in Yorkshire will supply renewable electricity to all of Molson Coors’ UK operations.

This includes the breweries at Burton, Tadcaster and Sharps in Cornwall, as well as the Aspall Cyder House in Suffolk, all offices, the national distribution centre and the national call centre in Cardiff.

The brewer of Carling, Coors and Doom Bar says the long-term agreement will mean that it will be producing more than 1 billion pints each year in the UK using entirely renewable sources.

Earlier this month, the company launched a new glass beer bottle following a trial that cut the carbon impact of its bottle production by up to 90%.

Tackling cyberattack vulnerabilities

Transition to green energy in UK comes at a time when the beverage company is working towards restoring its business to near normal levels since a cyber disruption reported earlier this month.

According to a filing with federal regulators, Molson Coors says that it has made substantial progress in this end but was quick to note that it still dealing with some delays and disruption in its brewery operations, production and shipments in the U.K., Canada and U.S.

“Over the past few weeks, we have faced significant and unforeseeable obstacles,” Molson Coors president and CEO Gavin Hattersley said in the March 26 update.

“While these obstacles will have a negative impact on our first quarter shipments and financial results, we believe the fundamentals of our revitalization plan are strong and our future remains bright.”

FoodDive reported that combined with severe winter storms last month in Texas, the cybersecurity threat will push between 1.8 million and 2 million hectoliters of production and shipments from the first quarter to the rest of the fiscal year.

The delay according to the FoodDive report will distribute between US$120 million and US$140 million in EBITDA throughout the rest of the fiscal year.

The attack on Molson Coors operations comes amid a wave of malware attacks and ransomware activity that has impacted companies worldwide.

The recently reported incidents range from healthcare providers to computer maker Acer, IoT provider Sierra Wireless and other major companies.

Trend Micro released a study showing 61% of manufacturers had experienced a cyber incident, resulting in outages for 75% of those companies with 43% of the outages lasted more than four days.


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