Molson Coors Beverage Company

When Molson Coors reported $11.6 billion in 2024 revenue—down slightly from the prior year—the 200-year-old brewer faced what biologists call a resource reallocation crisis. The company eliminated 400 salaried positions by December 2025 while simultaneously investing in premium brands like Peroni (up 25% in volume) and the Beyond Beer category (now 18% of revenue, targeting 25% by 2027). This mirrors the autophagy response in eukaryotic cells: breaking down non-essential structures to fuel growth in critical areas. While volume declined, the company increased its dividend 6.8% and returned over $1 billion to shareholders—a calculated bet that pruning low-margin products will concentrate resources where margins justify the metabolic cost.

The brewing industry's consolidation follows predator-prey dynamics, where AB InBev's massive scale creates refugia for mid-sized players. Molson Coors occupies the defensive middle ground: too large to be easily acquired, too small to dominate through sheer volume. Its premiumization strategy—scaling Five Trail Blended American Whiskey, expanding Topo Chico, acquiring Atwater Brewery and a majority stake in ZOA energy drinks—resembles a generalist species hedging against habitat loss. When mass-market beer consumption stagnates, survival depends on occupying adjacent niches. The company's $1.2 billion in 2025 capital expenditure for modernizing breweries and establishing distribution hubs in Mexico and India represents metabolically expensive adaptation: building new capabilities before the old revenue streams fully collapse.

Yet this transformation faces a fundamental scaling constraint. Above Premium brands grew at high-single digits in Q1 2025, but volume growth can't match the rate at which traditional beer sales erode. The company projects 2025 net sales down 3-4% on constant currency, with underlying income before income taxes declining 12-15%. This isn't mere market turbulence—it's the cost of phenotypic plasticity. Molson Coors is attempting to change its metabolic profile while maintaining shareholder returns, a strategy that works when ecosystems stabilize but fails when disruption accelerates. The question isn't whether the company can diversify; it's whether the pace of diversification exceeds the rate of core business decline.