MillerCoors announces new top appointments

NEW YORK MillerCoors, a joint venture between SABMiller and Coors Brewing, has appointed Andy England as chief marketing officer.

England became chief marketing officer of Coors Brewing in January 2006 after stints as vice president and general manager of snacks at Hershey Foods and as category vice president at Cadbury Schweppes’ Dr Pepper and 7Up unit.

Miller Brewing chief executive officer Tom Long will become president and chief commercial officer of MillerCoors, while the new partnership’s chief-executive position will go to Molson Coors chief executive officer Leo Kiely.

The joint venture, which antitrust regulators approved Thursday, is expected to increase competition for Anheuser-Busch, the largest brewer in the U.S. and second largest in the world in terms of sales. Some industry experts have speculated that Anheuser-Busch could come under pressure to mount a similar venture with Belgian brewer InBev, according to Bloomberg. InBev replaced Anheuser-Busch as the world’s largest brewer in 2006.