Category: News

Suntory Holdings Limited, based in Osaka, and US based Beam Inc. have announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement whereby Suntory will acquire all shares of Beam in a deal worth $16bn.  The acquisition, which will bring together Beam’s Courvoisier Cognac with Suntory’s Louis Royer Cognac, amongst other famous brands, is expected to make it the third largest supplier of premium spirits in the world, with a stated aim of becoming the global leader in distilled spirits.  Wasting no time on its expansion plans, it is reported that Suntory have subsequently made a bid to buy Whyte & Mackay whisky which has been put up for sale by fellow drinks giant, Diageo.  Competition concerns by the UK Office of Fair Trading forced Diageo to make this sale following its takeover of United Spirits.  One therefore has to question the motive of Suntory in making this move as they may now be heading for a run in with the OFT themselves.  So many cognac houses have been bought up of late it is always a concern to see the control of one of the big four moving to the Far East.  Monopolies of this size cannot be good for the cognac industry however we are in no doubt that our own House, Hermitage, will survive.

There have been significant changes at Remy Martin over the past month.  First, it was announced that their Cellar Master, of 10 years, is to be replaced in the spring and then, last week, their newly appointed CEO resigned after only 3 months in post.  Although his resignation came as a surprise, it coincided with some poor company results.  Stock levels have dropped by 23% since he took over in October and operating profit is expected to be down by 20% at the end of the fiscal year.  These personality changes suggest that all is not well at Remy. It would seem that the Board is on a quest for a more profit driven approach, no doubt at the expense of quality.  We have seen similar changes at family rivals, Frapin, in recent times.  A drive to expand saw their extremely talented Cellar Master, Olivier Paultes, move on and the running of the company being passed down a generation.  Their cognac may never be quite the same again.

Next time you go to Cognac pop into any producer and ask them who is next door and they won’t know, but ask them if they know George Roullet and the answer will either be a look, suggesting you should leave the premises quickly, or a fit of laughter. Roullet Fransac is situated on the quay next to Hennessy in Cognac.  It therefore offers clients visiting Hennessy a chance to browse around the dusty shelves of its premises for an alternative to the sticky, sugary, caramel offerings next door. George would buy his cognacs from local chais in Grande Champagne, including his old family firm in Cherminac. Admittedly, he had some good cognacs but whether George ever knew what was good and what was not so good is debatable but what he did know, even when enjoying his Paris apartment, was a good deal. As the CEO of one famous old house once said, “George is George”. No doubt George did a good deal with the Chinese, he had tried with many others! In all probability the house of Hine, who have just sold the firm to the Nicolas family for circa €50m, will have done a rather different deal; the Nicolas family know what is really good!