Major American alcohol company Fortune Brands, considered the main contender for the Stolichnaya brand, declined to sign a contract for the distribution of the vodka in the United States due to the “unclear status of the brand’s owner.”
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Fortune Frowns on Stoli
Yury Shefler’s SPI Group lost a potential sales partner, if not buyer, for its Stolichnaya vodka brand for the second time yesterday when major American alcohol company Fortune Brands, considered the main contender for the brand, declined to sign a contract for the distribution of the vodka in the United States due to the “unclear status of the brand’s owner.” SPI Group owns the rights to the Stolichnaya and Moskovskaya brands of vodka throughout the world, except in Russia and the CIS, where the rights belong to the state-owned Soyuzplodoimport, which has been in a dispute with SPI for its rights since the state company was founded in 2001.
In spite of Fortune Brands vice president Clarkson Hine’s assertion that the American company bowed out of the deal with SPI, Andrey Skurikhin, a minority shareholder in the Russian company insisted that it turned the U.S. company down due to “not the most attractive conditions.”
SPI was forced to seek a new sales partner for its leading brands after breaking off its contract with the French Pernod Ricard, which bought the Swedish Vin & Spirits this spring. Vin & Spirits is the owner of the Absolut brand of vodka. Experts estimate sales of Stolichnaya vodka in the United States at $1 billion per year.
Fortune Brands is the largest alcohol producer in the U.S. It owns the Courvoisier cognac, Jim Beam bourbon Sauza tequila and other brands. Its receipts in 2007 were $8.7 billion, with a net profit of $762.6 million. Last week, Pernod Ricard announced the cancellation (as of October 1, 2008) of the Vin & Spirits contract with Fortune Brands for the distribution of its brands in the U.S. with a payment of $230 million. That move had been thought to improve the chances of Fortune Brands’ distribution or purchase of SPI’s main brands.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Sep. 04, 2008
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