Four Roses

[kitzg]

For those of you who may miss Chuck's post under "general topics," Four Roses Brand will likely be sold to Japan's Kirin Brewing Company from Diageo and in agreement with the sale of the brands from Seagram to Diageo and Pernod-Ricard. This is reported to be within Kirin's strategy to be a worldwide spirits company. Kirin already has been the importer of Four Roses into Japan. Four Roses bourbon (yellow label) is only available in the U.S. in Kentucky and Indiana so that employees could buy the brand they distill and bottle but the brand is a major player (#1 in many countries) in both Europe and Japan. Imports of spirits for Kirin account for about 5% of their volume.

This acquisition should be good news for the employees in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky as it is nearly certain that Kirin will want to keep the distillery open. Had a U.S. distiller bought the brand it would raise the question about further consolidation and most U.S. distillers who might be interested have excess capacity.