Word: heublein
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...good works by producing California brandy and table wines. Last week, after months of soul searching, the Brothers announced that bottled spirits no longer fit into their plans. The company will sell its $100 million-a-year wine-and-brandy business and 1,160 acres of prime vineyards to Heublein, a subsidiary of London-based Grand Metropolitan, for an undisclosed amount, perhaps as much as $150 million. Heublein, which owns California's Inglenook vineyard but has no major brandy label of its own, would thus become the largest vintner (1,940 acres) in the Napa Valley...
...Heublein, which manufactures Smirnoff in Connecticut, hopes to persuade the Government that its slogan is within the law. The Smirnoff brand remains the best-selling vodka in the U.S. market, but it faces growing competition from such trendy brands as Sweden's Absolut and the Soviet Union's Stolichnaya...
...Four years later, as Nabisco's president, Johnson sold out to RJR Reynolds for $4.9 billion and soon became president of the merged company. After adding the title of chief executive officer in 1987, he swiftly moved RJR Nabisco headquarters from Winston-Salem to Atlanta, sold the Heublein liquor business and slashed the corporate staff from 1,000 to 400. The dapper Johnson, a friend of such sports figures as hockey star Bobby Orr and broadcaster Frank Gifford, is described as a "charmer" by one associate. Another warned that when the boss was displeased, "swift as a sword, he would...
...Seagram last month began test-marketing an unusual liquor-based hybrid called Golden Spirits, which is flavored with natural fruit essences to produce mixtures like peach- melba rum. "They are selling extraordinarily well," says House of Seagram President Edgar Bronfman Jr. Rival distillers are blending other cocktails. Connecticut's Heublein, maker of Smirnoff vodka, is test-marketing Tropic Freezers, which turn into frozen drinks like strawberry daiquiris after about six hours in a customer's freezer...
Troubled for years by an increasingly strident antismoking movement, Reynolds has long been eager to reduce its dependence on tobacco. Cigarettes currently account for 75% of the company's earnings. It has already acquired Kentucky Fried Chicken, Del Monte foods, Canada Dry soft drinks and Heublein's liquors and wines. The addition of Nabisco favorites, including Oreo cookies, Ritz crackers, Planters peanuts and Baby Ruth candy bars, will give Reynolds a full pantry of profitable products. Moreover, the acquisition will enable Reynolds to be much stronger overseas. Foreign sales account for about 37% of Nabisco's business, compared with only...