2012 | Booze Business: A Blog Dedicated to the Business of Spirits and Wine

Diageo Daze

May 16, 2012 2 Comments

Dear Diageo,

You produce great brands and are the sales and profit leader in the alcohol industry. According to press reports, you are about to acquire a large stake in Cuervo, which will be important to your future. Your global strategy of acquisition and growth in developing countries is second to none.

You are indeed the Emperor of the Booze World.

So, how come your senior management skills run from arrogant to stupid? Do you hire them that way or are they a product of a unique management development program?

Boodles Gin — Then and Now

May 5, 2012 19 Comments

Then…

By the time I got to Seagram, Boodles British Gin was an idea whose time never came. As the saying goes, “She was dead when I got there, Officer.”

The brand was developed in the 1950s or 60s under a license from the Boodles Club in London, founded in 1762 by the Earl of Shelburne, later the Marquess of Lansdowne and Prime Minister. The club, which is 250 years old this year, was named after its headwaiter, Edward Boodle.

Get this — the licensing fee was the gin; use of the name in exchange for free goods.

To say that the brand languished at Seagram is an understatement. The fact is, while some gin aficionados felt it was a great tasting gin, Boodles spent many years in and out of the Seagram hospice companies. The problems – real or perceived – included concerns about the square package (too wide for a back bar) and loss of identity when placed sideways. The “oodles” of Boodles taunt by some consumers added to the death rattle, particularly in light of the awful marketing on behalf of the brand.

Jack From Brooklyn

April 27, 2012 No Comments

My friend and fellow blogger Robert Lehrman, knowing of my interest in matters dealing with Brooklyn and Booze, introduced me to Jack Summers. Jack and his partners, Tim Kealey and Alan Camlet, own a startup business called Jack From Brooklyn. You can find them here.

Just another start up, you say. That’s right, but unlike most, these guys have the street smarts and entrepreneurial drive to break away from the pack and become real winners. For those of you who doubt it, as we used to say in Brooklyn, “Wanna bet?”