The Pride of South Australia

The history of the Cooper’s Brewery is as rich and colourful as Adelaide itself. The key to their success can be attributed to the 3 P’s – perseverance, purity, and popularity. The brewing dynasty of Yorkshireman Thomas Cooper dates back to 1862, but Thomas never meant to start a brewing business. A tradesman with gained expertise as a stonemason, shoemaker, and dairyman, Thomas was asked by his wife Ann, the daughter of an Innkeeper, to brew up a batch of stout from an old family recipe to help cure an unknown illness. Word quickly got around and Thomas soon found himself brewing the same Sparkling Ale and Extra Stout we still enjoy today for neighbours and friends. As the brewery flourished, Thomas delivered his beer by horse and cart direct to homes of his customers, a Cooper tradition which survived until the 1920’s.

There were many small breweries operating in the 1840’3 on and by 1868 there were 43 breweries in South Australia. All encountered problems including bacterial infections from the higher Aussie temperature than England and inferior malt. The use of sugar in brewing as an adjunct was a way to overcome the malt problem. In a letter to his bother, Thomas Cooper states “There are half a dozen breweries in and about Adelaide but they use a good deal of sugar for brewing, but we use only malt and hops consequently, ours being pure, the Doctors recommend it to all their patients.”

Through the 1880’s South Australia experienced a decline in the economy following the onset of drought and falls in major exports of wheat and copper. The decline was felt in the brewing industry as well with Cooper’s production down to 62 brews a year and remained at that level for the next ten years. In 1881, Thomas Cooper had moved from Norwood to set up a new brewery at suburban Leabrook, then very much an outer suburb of Adelaide. Coopers operated on the Leabrook site for the next 120 years until 2001 when it moved to a new $40 million brewery it built at Regency Park to overcome problems associated with a lack of room at Leabrook, now one of Adelaide’s more prestigious suburbs.

By 1900 there were only 25 breweries left in the colony when Thomas retired leaving all his property to his four sons with instructions to ‘Carry on my business as brewers under the form “Thos Cooper & Sons” as partners and trustees

During the first two decades of the 20th century, the demand for Coopers showed an increase of 300% despite another major drought (1914) and the onset of World War 1. Shortages of brewing materials, manpower and an aged 29 year old brewery hampered Coopers production during the war years., yet in 1923/24 Coopers had 56% of the stout market due to the fact that it contained higher levels of alcohol and considered ‘value for money’

Coopers survived the great depression, continued shortages of materials, and lack of manpower during the war years, so by the mid 1940’s the brewing equipment required desperate upgrades. By 1945 one section of the brewery was in urgent need, wooden fermenting vats needed replacement to avoid infection problems experienced by other local breweries. The continued escalation of costs made it difficult to generate good profits requiring reduced dividends to shareholders including no dividend in 1951.Coopers relied heavily on the stout market and their leading competitor, SA Brewing, reintroduced their product which started a stout war. In Cooper’s centenary year of 1962 the two rival companies met and consulted with shareholders to mutually exchange shares giving SA Brewing 25% interest in Cooper’s. Along with the family share structure, this deal virtually eliminated a buy out of the company. This trust and loyalty is an integral part of Coopers and was seen recently again when in late 2005, Coopers was the subject of a hostile takeover bid by rival NZ-Japanese owned brewer Lion Nathan. That takeover bid was resoundingly defeated just before Christmas when the 118 Coopers shareholders, mostly descendants of Thomas Cooper, voted 93.42% to 6.58% in favour of a motion that effectively ended the bid.

Today, Coopers Brewery is the third largest brewer in Australia and the only one that remains entirely family-owned. The company is now being run by the fifth generation of the same family. As they like to say at Coopers, you can still meet a Cooper, but there is no Mr Lion, Mr Nathan or even a Mr Carlton. Coopers currently has about 3% of the national beer market but is growing rapidly, particularly in the Eastern States where growth in recent years has been in the order of 30% plus each year. In its home state of South Australia, Coopers has about a 25% share of the market. It exports bottled beers to a number of countries, including the UK, USA and countries throughout Europe and Asia. It also recently sent its first shipment of beer to Brazil. Coopers is also the largest producer of home brew concentrates in the world and exports them to most corners of the globe. In Australia, concentrates are sold through supermarkets and specialty home brew stores.