Molson Coors has announced plans to invest £10m in its Tadcaster brewery, to increase production capacity and efficiency and reduce emissions.
A programme of investment and infrastructure upgrades over the next two years will increase the North Yorkshire site’s capacity to produce beers including Carling, Coors, Madrí Excepcional and Worthington’s, using more advanced, energy-efficient equipment.
The news came as local MP Keir Mather visited the site’s new carbon dioxide recovery facility, which will be operational in early 2024.
Stephen Moore, Director of the Molson Coors brewery in Tadcaster, explained: “Carbon dioxide is released during the beer fermentation process, but instead of entering the atmosphere, we will soon be able to recover and transfer carbon dioxide within the brewery before it’s purified and compressed into a liquid for storage.
“From there it will be turned back into gas to be used in the packaging process, where it will be injected into the fermented product, giving our beer its signature fizz. This will make us more self-sufficient and play an important part in reducing our emissions.
In 2021, Molson Coors became the first major UK brewer to switch to 100% renewable electricity. All the electricity used to produce the more than one billion pints that Molson Coors makes each year in the UK comes from 22 wind turbines at the Tween Bridge wind farm in South Yorkshire, fewer than 40 miles from the Tadcaster Brewery.
Molson Coors’ global sustainability commitments include reducing carbon emissions across its direct operations by 50% by 2025. Having hit this target four years ahead of schedule, the UK business is aiming to accelerate its pathway to net zero and reach net zero scope 1 and 2 emissions across all UK sites by 2035.
