Kentucky-based liquor giant Brown-Forman Corporation (B-F) has renewed its existing cost sharing distribution agreement with Bacardi-Martini in the UK through the year 2012.
Under the agreement, which was first implemented in August 2002, the two companies share a sales force and logistics operation in bringing their respective portfolios to market in the UK, while each company maintains full responsibility for the marketing of its own brands.
Brown-Forman and Bacardi also work together in such areas as consumer research and social responsibility.
Since the cost sharing agreement was initiated in August 2002, B-F said it has enjoyed significant growth, with case volume up in the UK by 33%, led by its two largest brands, Jack Daniel’s and Southern Comfort.
The US spirits firm now sells in excess of 1.2 million cases of spirits in the UK, with Finlandia Vodka, Woodford Reserve Bourbon, Tuaca Liqueur, and Chambord Liqueur also part of the company’s portfolio.
The combined Bacardi/Brown-Forman Brands operation enables both companies to offer a more comprehensive range of consumer-driven, premium spirits to the trade, stated Paul Varga, B-F CEO.
In doing so, we secure economies of scale for the sales force and for physical distribution, and achieve a greater depth of trade coverage and better service to on- and off-premise accounts than either company could provide as a stand-alone entity, he concluded.