 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Carling O'Keefe" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(February 2016) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Carling O'Keefe was abrewing company inCanada that is now part ofMolson Coors. The company's origins can be traced toCanadian Breweries, which bought theCarling Brewery in 1930 and theO'Keefe Brewery in 1934. Canadian Breweries purchased numerous other brewers – some to shut down, and some solely for their brands. In 1969, Canadian Breweries was acquired by a subsidiary ofRothmans, which renamed the company as Carling O'Keefe in 1973. The company was sold in 1987, then merged withMolson in 1989.
In 1840,Thomas Carling began a small brewing operation inLondon,Upper Canada, selling beer to soldiers at the localmilitary camp. When he died, his sons William and John took over, naming it the W & J Carling Brewing Co.John Carling became a prominent figure in Canadian business and politics; he was knighted in 1893 and died in 1911. The Carling Brewery then changed hands several times. In 1930, the Carling company was merged into theBrewing Corporation of Ontario, founded byE. P. Taylor.
Eugene O'Keefe, a banker, purchased the Hannath & Hart Brewery in 1862. By 1864, one of his partners had died, while the other (Patrick Cosgrave) left to found his own brewery. The business was renamed O'Keefe and Company. It was the first to producelager beer in Canada, along with the traditionalale andporter.[1] In 1891, the company was incorporated as O'Keefe Brewing Company Limited.[1] In 1911 another new brewery was built with an annual capacity of 500,000 barrels.[1] O'Keefe was one of the first to use trucks for beer delivery, the first to build a mechanically refrigerated warehouse, and one of the first to advertise extensively.[1]
O'Keefe died in 1913. The company became owned by a holding company, O'Keefe Limited, controlled bySir Henry Pellatt,Sir William Mulock andCharles Vance Millar,[1] who served as its president until his death in 1926.[2]O'Keefe House is the former mansion owned by Eugene O'Keefe inToronto. It now serves as a residence forToronto Metropolitan University. The O'Keefe brewery facility was located at Victoria and Gould streets, just east ofYonge Street. It was sold to Ryerson in 1966. The brewery was demolished and used as a parking lot for several decades, and later a Ryerson parking garage was built on-site. The site is now part of the10 Dundas East mixed-use development, including a movie theatre used as lecture rooms by Ryerson (as part of a deal for air rights over their parking garage), a parking garage and the Ryerson book store. Other O'Keefe buildings on the east side of Victoria were converted for Ryerson's use, including the bottling plant and warehouse (built in 1953) at 122 Bond Street that became home to the School of Image Arts. The main O'Keefe's regional office building (285 Victoria Street, built 1946-48) becoming home to the Faculty of Business in 1967 until they moved into the new Ryerson Business Building (renamed the Ted Rogers School of Management) at Bay & Dundas in 2006. It is presently known as the Victoria Building.
E. P. Taylor began formingCanadian Breweries Limited (CBL) in 1930, beginning with Brading Brewery of Ottawa and Kuntz Brewery of Kitchener. Carling was merged into the-then Brewing Corporation of Ontario later that year. O'Keefe was one of the major targets, but the acquisition was not completed until 1934.[1] Canadian Breweries Limited was a conglomerate, having purchased about 30 breweries. Some of the original brand names stayed in use during this time. The company closed some breweries, reducing its number of brands to just six in 1959. It also expanded into the United States, starting with a Carling Brewery inCleveland, Ohio in 1934. By 1971, it had seven breweries in the United States. In the UK, it first licensed the production ofCarling Black Label in 1952 to Hope & Anchor. Along with Hope & Anchor, CBL built a national brewing group starting in the late 1950s, developing Northern Breweries and Charrington United Breweries.[3]
Taylor resigned as chairman of CBL in 1966, and CBL was sold toRothmans of Pall Mall Canada in 1969. Under Rothmans, it began a period of consolidation and cutting costs. It closed breweries in Ottawa, Quebec and Cleveland. Faced with declining sales and profits, it renamed itself Carling O'Keefe in 1973.
As a new venture, Carling O'Keefe began makingCarlsberg and distributingTuborg in 1973. The company continued the acquisitions of the Taylor era. The company bought two more brewers: Doran's of Northern Ontario, and National Brewing of the US.[4]
In 1981, Carling O'Keefe, responding to the entry of Budweiser byLabatt's, licensedMiller High Life beer for production in Canada.[5] The beer, unlike its other beers was not sold in the "stubby" bottle, instead, it was sold in the long-neck clear bottle.[5] This began the decline of the stubby, which was phased out in the 1980s.
Carling O'Keefe was bought byElders IXL ofAustralia in 1987. Carling O'Keefe began bottling Elders'Foster's Lager.[6] Carling O'Keefe merged withMolson Brewery to form Molson Breweries Canada in 1989. At the time of the merger, Molson was the second-largest Canadian brewing company, while Carling O'Keefe was third. The merger put the combined company ahead of former market leader Labatt's and made it the sixth-largest North America brewery. Seven Canadian plants were closed due to consolidation.[7] Molson would later add US brewerMiller Brewing as a minority partner, then buy out Elders and Miller.[8] In 2005, Molson merged withCoors to formMolson Coors Brewing Company.
Carling brands are currently owned by the Molson Coors Brewing Company. Carling O'Keefe's Toronto location on Carlingview Drive (named for the brewery) is now a Molson brewery.
O'Keefe, in 1969, was the first television sponsor of theMontreal Expos onCBC and remained affiliated with the team for many years, sponsoring a team MVP award in the early 1970s.
Carling O'Keefe was a major supporter of Langley Speedway, a 3/8th-mile paved stock car oval, in Langley, British Columbia. They often sponsored races and season points championships. For example, Tom Berrow was the 1976 Carling O'Keefe Super Stock Points Champion. Their Company name was painted on the front stretch of the track and was part of the "Winner's Circle" celebration.
In 1974, Carling USA sponsored aNASCAR car driven by Canadian short track driverEarl Ross and owned by former NASCAR driverJunior Johnson in theWinston Cup Series. Over the course of the season, Ross earned four top fives, nine top tens, and a single win atMartinsville Speedway en route to a ninth-place finish in the points standings.
In 1976, Carling O'Keefe became a minority partner in theToronto Argonauts professional football team and continued to do so until 1991.[9] Carling O'Keefe also held ownership of theNHL'sQuebec Nordiques.[10][11][12][13] Both franchises were sold due to the impending merger with Molson.[14][15][16][17] The company, however, maintained promotional interests in both teams. In addition, during the 1980s, Carling O'Keefe was a chief sponsor for the CFL game telecasts on both theCBC andCTV (and, when CTV ceased broadcasting the CFL after 1986, the league-operatedCanadian Football Network) networks.[18]