Campari Buys Wild Turkey for $575 MM

April 8, 7:32 PMChicago Drinks ExaminerCharles Cowdery

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Wild Turkey Distillery, Lawrenceburg, KY

Back in December, it was reported that Wild Turkey was on the block. Its parent, Pernod Ricard, desperately needed cash to lower the debt it assumed when it bought Absolut Vodka.

The buyer, announced today, is Davide Campari-Milano, better known as Gruppo Campari. The company's namesake product, essential for making the Negroni cocktail, is an alcoholic bitters.

Gruppo Campari has, slowly but surely, been trying to penetrate the United States spirits market. To that end it acquired Skyy Vodka in 2002 and Cabo Wabo Tequila in 2007. When this deal closes at the end of June, nearly two-thirds of Campari's sales will come from outside of Italy.

The press release is here.

We hope Campari has another $30 MM or so handy, so they can revive the stalled expansion at the distillery in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky. The plan has been to double production capacity and upgrade the visitors center, but it has been on hold for months.

From a sales standpoint, Wild Turkey is not as big as you might think. It sells less than 10 percent of what either Jack Daniel's or Jim Beam does, about 800,000 cases a year. It's more comparable to Maker's Mark in terms of both sales volume and profitability.

The brand and distillery have only had the same owner since 1971. Before that, the distillery was owned by the Ripy family, which supplied New York grocer Austin Nichols with whiskey for its Wild Turkey brand. The brand was created in 1940, but both Austin Nichols (1855) and the Ripy family distillery (1869) have deep 19th century roots.