North American brewer Molson Coors has opened a new can line at its Montreal brewery in Quebec with an investment of around $52m.

The launch of new can line marks the single biggest investment Molson Coors has made in its Quebec brewery in a quarter century.

With the investment, the company has added a 355ml and 473ml can line, 250ml can production capability and modernized two bottling and kegging lines.

The new can line will package all the company’s brands including the recently announced Coors Light Iced T, exclusively for the Canadian market.

The can line will also enable the company to save 8.4 million liters of water, equivalent to 16 olympic-sized pools of water, and will help the company to achieve its water and energy reduction targets.

Molson Coors Canada president Dave Perkins said the company was running out of can output in Canada and needed to add capacity to respond to market demand.

According to Perkins, the new line has the capacity to process 1,600 cans per minute.

Quebec Transport Minister Sam Hamad said the new equipment will enable Molson Coors’ Montreal brewery to remain competitive and by increasing the productivity the company contributes to the growth of Quebec’s economy.

Molson Coors was created by the merger of two of North American breweries Molson of Canada and Coors of the US on 9 February 2005.

The company operates in Canada through Molson Coors Canada, in the US through Miller Coors, and in the UK and Ireland through Molson Coors (UK & Ireland).

The company’s brand portfolio includes Coors Light, Molson Canadian, Carling, Blue Moon and Keystone Light.