Sam Cecil's Book

[boone]

Here's the write up about Sam Cecil...

Sam, worked with my grandfather Harry M. Beam while he was at Heaven Hill. He also talks about working at the T.W. Samuels Distillery...In one of his books (not gonna thumb through ) there is a old picture of him (Sam) at the T.W. Samuels plant...Included in that picture (sitting) is my Uncle Elmo Beam and Bobby's grandfather "Shorty"...All of 'em are smiling, like they just did something really sneaky ...

Bettye Jo

[boone]

The rest of the story...

[cowdery]

Sam mentions the help they got from other distilleries. Two stories I heard on my last visit to Bardstown confirmed this. Bill Samuels told me that Pappy Van Winkle was just one of several people who provided invaluable help when they were getting started. David Beam told me that his uncle Earl (Parker's dad) at Heaven Hill would always order an extra bushel of hops when they placed an order, because Maker's Mark was too small to make even a minimum order with the hops supplier.

Hops, you ask? Hops are an ingredient in the yeast medium.

[bobbyc]

Heaven Hill, being privately held, does not release its financials, but I'm sure they are in a much more modest neighborhood.

I wasn't thinking of dollar amounts, just the brand portfolios that each of them bring to their respective tables. However, since I'll take a good bet or a bad one from time to time, I bet if there were any way to know, everyone would be surprized that Heaven Hill turns more dollars a year rather than less. BettyeJo relates the story of the day after the fire when Max lays it on the line about how many orders they have to fill and that the Bourbon loss, while bad, only represented a small percentage of the total there. Heaven Hill's barrel count is about half of what Jim Beams is. Looks small, but when you consider that Beam uses 2 plants to do twice as much work, then that makes Heaven Hill's Bourbon side as big as either one of Beams 2 plants.

[cowdery]

Well, money is the big leveler, isn't it?

Comparing portfolios is hard. What do you compare? Sheer number of products? Number of categories in which they participate? Barton/Constellation is big in beer and wine, which Heaven Hill doesn't touch. Brown-Forman is in wine but not beer, but does have consumer durables, which Barton/Constellation and Heaven Hill do not.

My guess, and it's just a guess, is that Heaven Hill's business is in the hundreds of millions, not in the billions like BF and B/C. And while BF and B/C are in the low billions, Diageo, Fortune (Beam's parent) and Allied-Domecq are like $6, 7, 8 billion. So, relatively, Heaven Hill is pretty small.

[bobbyc]

This is from the Heaven Hill site, they are number 7. However they hold the 2nd largest inventory of Bourbon in the world. If we can find out numbers 6 and 8, we could get an idea how big they are.
Diageo owns Burger King, I think they want to sell it, and Allied-Domecq owns Baskin-Robbins, No doubt big contributors to the bottom line and still nothing to do with Beverage Alcohol.
I was only looking at the portfolios of beverage alcohol, not the luggage, china, golf balls and so forth.

[gr8erdane]

Golf balls?

No wonder golf drives me to drink.

Well, maybe it's more of a nudge.

[boone]

Yeah, my folks used hops too Here is a post with my Uncle Desmond's Beam's jug yeast recipe Uncle Desmonds recipe

Bettye Jo

[cowdery]

Thanks, Bettye Jo. Even people who know quite a bit about bourbon-making (okay, me) are a bit hazy about the mysteries of yeast-making. I also have been told that these yeast mixtures are quite tasty.

[cowdery]

Fortune Brands, parent company of Jim Beam, has been described as one of the last of the old-style conglomerates, owning a variety of businesses that seemingly have no relationship to each other, but I disagree, to whit:

Jim Beam Brands Co. -- beverage alcohol
Aristokraft Kitchen Cabinets -- where you keep your beverage alcohol
MasterLock -- for locking up your good bourbon
Moen Faucets -- for the water to dilute your good bourbon
Kensington, Swingline and Wilson Jones office supplies -- because you need a good job to afford good bourbon
Titleist golf balls -- because the way you play golf makes you drink