Coors Brewers is migrating its UK PC network to Windows XP as it waits to find out its new parent company's future plans for IT systems.

The UK subsidiary of Coors used to be known as Bass Brewers prior to its acquisition by Interbrew in the middle of 2000, and its subsequent sale to the US-based group.

The brewer is set to upgrade its desktop systems, which it tries to complete every five years, says business development manager Howard Dore.

'We are in the middle of changing our PC and network infrastructure. We're moving from Windows NT to XP,' he said.

But the company, which produces beers such as Carling, Worthington and Grolsch, is waiting to hear from its US owners whether it will have to undertake a complete systems overhaul.

'We are in the process of taking stock of where we are and in discussions as to how we go forward,' said Dore.

'We have a lot of integration opportunities with our new owners. These avenues are being investigated now,' he said.

The discussions will include plans for Coors' vital supply and demand chain systems.

The company has 20,000 customers, some 30 per cent of which are supermarkets, the rest being pubs and other retail outlets, and employs 5,000 people in the UK at three breweries. It installed Manugistics supply chain software in 1997.

Dore is hoping to upgrade to the next version of Manugistics in the near future, having gained significant benefits from working more closely with suppliers and customers in the last few years.

'In an ideal scenario I would like to have an upgrade to the systems we have,' said Dore. 'We're developing processes with suppliers and customers now, and we want to get better web-enabled systems, But we have to do a bit of jumping through hoops at the moment.'

The company does not know when the decision over its IT future will be made.