Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev (right) examines a bottle of Stolichnaya vodka at a fundraiser for the Russian Heritage Highway Foundation in Las Vegas in 2004.
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Stoli Name Up for Sale Overseas
The SPI company, maker of alcoholic beverages, plans to sell its popular Soviet vodka brand Stolichnaya. The Financial Times writes that the company has hired the American investment bank Lehmann Brothers to assist in the process. The company may rid itself completely of Stolichnaya, or it may just sell the rights to the brand outside Russia. The brand is estimated to be worth $3 billion.
Until recently, the brand had been licensed for overseas distribution to the French Pernod Ricard, but that company declined to continue handling the brand after it acquired the Swedish Vin & Sprit for $8.1 billion. Vin & Sprit is the producer of Absolut vodka. Pernod Ricard obtained the right to Stolichnaya when it acquired the British distributor Allied Domecq in 2005. The French and Russian companies renewed their contract after that. Under the new agreement, Pernod Ricard has the right to buy the Stolichnaya brand if SPI chooses to sell it.
The Stolichnaya brand is a risky acquisition because the Russian state Soyuzplodoimport company is disputing SPI’s right to the trademark. SPI belongs to businessman Yury Shefler. It has distilleries in Tambov and Kaliningrad. The company’s turnover in 2006 was $300 million. Soyuzplodoimport owns the right to the Stolichnaya brand name in Russia. That company was founded in 2001 by decree of the Russian government. It has been trying in court to gain the foreign rights to the Stolichnaya name since that time.
www.kommersant.com
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