Millers headquarters to move out of Milwaukee

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Wisconsin is about to lose another of its corporate headquarters and one of its best-known.

The newly-merged Miller and Coors’ U.S. beer operation has chosen Chicago as its home base.

It’s where they’ll open a joint office with 300-400 employees starting next summer.

Up to 200 of those workers will come from Miller’s Milwaukee offices.

The move is not a surprise. Coors’ chairman said in February it could never choose one of the current anchors in Milwaukee and Golden, Colo., for fear it would show favoritism for one city over the other.

According to Miller-Coors’ president Tom Long, that’s exactly the reason it chose Chicago. But the merged company will still run its Eastern Division and Great Lakes regional offices from Milwaukee.

And with Coors products added to Miller’s, the Milwaukee brewery promises to add jobs as production grows by 55 percent.

Still, Gov. Jim Doyle and Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett were not happy to see another corporate headquarters leave the state.

Analysts say they’re a point of pride for a community along with a major source of charitable donations.

Doyle said he’s glad the brewery will expand, but Barrett said he wanted it all.

It will be the first time since the late 19th century that a major beer-maker is not based in Milwaukee.

Tags: wisconsin, news, miller, coors, chicago, headquarters