Rumors of the sale, possibly including the raspberry liqueur Chambord, were floated last fall but Brown-Forman declined to comment, although word leaked that Goldman Sachs had been hired to broker a deal.
Brown-Forman bought Southern Comfort in 1979 and Tuaca, a brandy-based vanilla and orange liqueur, in 2002. In the second-quarter earnings report released in December, Brown-Forman reported that sales of Southern Comfort brands dropped 7 percent in underlying net sales, with an 11 percent reported drop. According to Shanken Daily News, an industry publication, sales had fallen from more than 1.5 million cases a decade ago to just over 1 million cases. Tuaca sales also are down from 135,000 cases in 2008 to below 85,000 cases, Shanken reported.
“We’re proud of the work undertaken over the years by our employees and partners on behalf of Southern Comfort and Tuaca,” Varga said. “Both brands played important roles in the Brown-Forman success story.”
Although Brown-Forman’s Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Honey and Tennessee Fire have done well, the company had struggled in recent years to stop Southern Comfort’s declining popularity, launching oddball advertising campaigns — some of which went viral — to carve a niche for the liqueur in an increasingly competitive category of flavored whiskeys, dominated by Sazerac’s cinnamon-flavored Fireball.
But nothing seemed to give it much traction and now Southern Comfort, the beloved drink of singer Janis Joplin, will join a vast portfolio of labels at the privately held Sazerac.
“We are very excited about the opportunity to acquire such iconic brands,” said Mark Brown, president and CEO of Sazerac.
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