Coors beer is displayed on a store shelf on February 13, 2024 in San Rafael, California.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images
Molson Coors is the latest addition to a growing list of companies reversing their diversity, equity and inclusion policies.
In an internal memo sent Wednesday and obtained by CNBC, Molson Coors executives said the company would get rid of supplier diversification quotas, adding that they can be “complicated and influenced by factors outside of [the company’s] control.”
However, the brewer said it will continue to ensure its suppliers are representative of the company’s diverse consumer base.
“We ensure that our executive incentives are tied to business performance and do not include ambitious representation goals from next year,” company officials wrote in the memo.
Molson Coors also said it is developing “the next evolution” of its company’s training, which will focus on key business objectives instead of the previous DEI-based training programs that the company said all current U.S. employees already participate in. .
Molson Coors will rebrand its Employee Resource Groups as Enterprise Resource Groups, ostensibly maintaining the groups’ existing function, and will cease to participate in any voluntary third-party US company rankings, which include the Corporate Human Rights Campaign’s Equality Index which ranks companies based on corporate equality measures for LGBTQ+ people. The brewer had previously earned 100 points.
“This will not affect the benefits we provide to our employees, nor will it change or diminish our commitment to fostering a strong culture where all our employees know they are welcome at our bar,” the company said.
Molson Coors will also ensure that all corporate philanthropic giving programs are focused on supporting “core business goals,” such as alcohol responsibility, disaster relief efforts and promoting access to higher education. The company had raised more than $700,000 nationally for LGBTQ+-focused organizations through its “Tap Into Change” program since 2011 and sponsored Pride festivals.
Although conservative activist Robby Starbuck characterized the moves as proactive changes in response to his investigation into the company’s DEI practices a week ago, Molson Coors said in its memo that the decision “had been implemented since March.”
Molson Coors’ decision comes after a wave of retailers over the summer took a step back from their DEI efforts.
Rural retailer Supply of tractors started the trend when it severed ties with the LGBTQ+ advocacy group Human Rights Campaign and backed away from past DEI goals such as boosting the number of employees of color at the executive level. Companies like Harley-Davidson and Lowe’s followed their example. More recently, Passage executives highlighted plans to reduce supplier diversity quotas and cut the company’s relationship with the HRC metric.
DEI corporate practices received renewed interest after the killing of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, but have struggled since the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn affirmative action in colleges. Although the reversal of affirmative action affects academic institutions and has no legal impact on corporate initiatives, companies worry that growing anti-DEI sentiment will bleed into corporate America.
