Coors beer is show on a store shelf on February 13, 2024 in San Rafael, California.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images
Molson Coors is the tardy 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 bosses said the company will be getting rid of supplier diversity quotas, adding that they can be “complicated and influenced by elements outside of [the company’s] control.”
But the brewer has said it will continue to make sure its suppliers are representative of the company’s differing consumer base.
“We are ensuring our executive incentives are tied to business performance and do not include aspirational representation goals dawn next year,” company executives wrote in the memo.
Molson Coors also said it is developing “the next formation” of its company trainings, which will focus on key business objectives instead of its previously DEI-based training programs that the business said all current U.S. employees have already participated in.
Molson Coors will rebrand its Employee Resource Heaps as Business Resource Groups, while seemingly maintaining the existing function of the groups, and will cease participation in any intentional “best of” third-party company rankings in the U.S., which includes the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index that ranks companies based on corporate uniformity measures for LGBTQ+ individuals. The brewer had scored a perfect 100 points previously.
“This will not impact the allowances we provide our employees, nor will it change or diminish our commitment to fostering a strong culture where every one of our employees understands they are welcome at our bar,” the company said.
Molson Coors will also ensure all corporate charitable giving programs are met on supporting “core business goals” such as alcohol responsibility, disaster relief efforts and promoting access to excited education. The company had raised more than $700,000 nationally for LGBTQ+-focused organizations through its “Tap Into Transmute” program since 2011 and sponsored Pride festivals.
Although conservative activist Robby Starbuck characterized the ruses as preemptive changes in response to his probe into the company’s DEI practices one week ago, Molson Coors says in its memo that the finding “has been in process since March.”
Molson Coors’ decision comes after a wave of retailers over the summer profited a step back in their DEI efforts.
Rural retailer Tractor Supply started the trend when it severed halts with the LGBTQ+ advocacy group Human Rights Campaign and retired previous DEI targets like boosting the mob of employees of color at the managerial level. Companies like Harley-Davidson and Lowe’s followed suit. Most recently, Ford top bananas highlighted plans to slash supplier diversity quotas and cut the company’s relationship with the HRC’s metric.
Corporate DEI practices gross renewed interest in the wake of the murder of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020, but have twisted in the aftermath of the Supreme Court decision to overturn affirmative action in colleges. Although the reversal of affirmative action relevant ti academic institutions and has no legal bearing on corporate initiatives, companies are concerned that the growing anti-DEI sentiment intention bleed into corporate America.