Speeches
Tuesday, 06 August 2024
Coopers Brewery Visitor Centre Opening
Rod and I are delighted to be here today for the official opening of the new Coopers Brewery Visitor Centre.
I am sure I speak for South Australians when I say Coopers is in the top rank of our State’s iconic companies. Indeed, it is probably no exaggeration to say that many loyal South Australian customers would put you as their number one.
Afterall the Coopers name is synonymous with heritage, family, quality, and the best of our State.
And I need not remind an audience such as this that Coopers is Australia’s largest independent family-owned brewery.
Your products are known nationally and internationally, but you have a special place in the hearts of South Australians, including because of your generous community engagement through the Coopers Brewery Foundation.
That’s a mark of great, local companies – acting globally and being true to their origins at home.
Since 1862 Coopers has been seen as proudly South Australian and today boasts an extraordinary six generations as a family company.
As a sixth generation South Australian myself I am sure my forebears would have enjoyed a glass of Coopers from time to time. I know my father regularly did.
And continuing that tradition, Rod and I are always pleased to serve Coopers – every Coopers style – and drink it ourselves at Government House.
I won’t recount the Cooper’s story, as Tim will have many more insights than I, but I will say that Coopers has always thought about both longevity and innovation in its products. It has weathered wars, recessions, and takeover offers.
The new Visitors Centre speaks to a broader vision and will provide a rich tourism experience for local, interstate, and overseas visitors.
This new development incorporates restaurants and bars, an outdoor plaza dining, a dedicated tasting room, an interactive history display, a microbrewery, craft beers and a whisky distillery.
Who here will not want to come back and try all of this?
Branching out into whisky is yet another example of Coopers not resting on its past but looking to the future by building on its strengths.
Sadly, but unsurprisingly, I understand we’ll have to wait some years to taste a dram of the new product.
I congratulate everyone who has taken this impressive facility from concept to reality with an eye to sustainability and Australian inputs: the family, the board, the company, architects, builders, those who oversaw the fit out - and those will welcome visitors.
It is an impressive, striking symbol of the growth of the company - its curved design evocative of the iconic Coopers roundel label.
In being here today I follow in the footsteps of former Governors the Hon Hieu Van Le who opened the new Coopers Malting facility in 2017, and Rear Admiral the Hon Kevin Scarce who officially opened a second bottling line in 2013.
I am sure my successor will look forward to joining you for the next big milestone for Coopers - and I am sure there will be one.
But for now, it gives me immense pleasure officially to declare open the new Coopers Brewery Visitor Centre.
Cheers!