A $400 million lawsuit filed by Pabst Brewing Co. against MillerCoors LLC involving a shuttered Rockingham County brewery will go to trial in November.
Pabst sued MillerCoors in March 2016 in a dispute over whether the Pabst and MillerCoors' distribution partnership ends in 2020. According to a CNBC report, MillerCoors has argued that it has no obligation to extend its contract with Pabst past 2020 and that it isn't clear whether it has the capacity to continue the relationship. MillerCoors also said it has sole discretion to assess whether it has said capacity and has no responsibility to offer Pabst a solution to the capacity issues.
But of more local interest in the Triad is the suit's connection to the massive Eden plant that MillerCoors closed in September 2015. Pabst claims MillerCoors breached its agreement, affecting the Eden brewery and others.
The plant had an annual brewing capacity of about 9 million barrels and produced Coors Light, Miller Lite, Miller High Life, Miller Genuine Draft and Steel Reserve, as well as its Blue Moon seasonal brands and other specialty brands. It was one of Rockingham County's largest employers and the state's largest brewery.
At the time, a company official explained the closure at the time as a way to "optimize our brewery footprint and streamline operations for greater efficiency." MillerCoors said there was "significant overlap" in distribution between the Eden brewery and its Elkton, Va., brewery about 200 miles away, which was newer and "better suited geographically in relation to Northeast markets," the company said.
It cost 500 people their jobs.
Opened in 1978, the Eden facility underwent an expansion in 2012, when it employed about 600 people.
Today, the 1.3 million-square-foot plant is unoccupied. A Rockingham County economic development official told Triad Business Journal in April that two or three companies came close to moving in, but their plans ultimately fell through for reasons unknown to the county.
One company that eyed the plant and its 1,600 acres was Austria-based EGGER Wood Products, which picked Davidson County for a project worth $700 million and 770 new jobs. Though not necessarily a deciding factor, EGGER couldn't configure rail access to the MillerCoors site to meet its needs.
A group of state legislators, led by Senate president Phil Berger of Eden, tried and failed to get MillerCoors to explain its decision. The demands came in a letter from Berger that was co-signed by more than 100 legislators and sent to U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis.
The letter questions why the plant closure was announced just days before SABMiller, a partner in the MillerCoors joint venture, began merger discussions with Anheuser-Busch InBev.
"It simply doesn't pass the smell test that MillerCoors opted to close its best-performing brewery and lay off hundreds of highly trained employees just days before public merger discussions were announced," the letter said. "While these giant beer conglomerates are looking out for their own interests, the hardworking people of Rockingham County are legitimately concerned."
MillerCoors has tried unsuccessfully to end the lawsuit. Recently, a judge rejected MillerCoors' motion for a summary judgment and denied a motion to dismiss the case in January.
A final pre-trail hearing will take place Sept. 27, and the trial will begin Nov. 12 – barring a settlement.
Patrick Leary, a reporter for the Milwaukee Business Journal, contributed to this report.