Fortune Brands
 | |
| Industry | Conglomerate |
|---|---|
| Fate | Split |
| Predecessor | American Brands |
| Successor | American Brands, FILA Korea, Fortune Brands Home & Security, Beam Inc. |
| Founded | 1969 (1969) (as American Brands) |
| Defunct | October 3, 2011 (2011-10-03) |
| Headquarters | Deerfield, Illinois U.S. |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Bruce A. Carbonari (Chairman of the Board & CEO) |
| Products | Moen Master Lock Jim Beam DeKuyper Knob Creek Vox vodka El Tesoro tequila |
| Revenue |  $ 6.695 billion (2009) |
Operating income |  $ 505.20 million (2009) |
Net income | $ 242.80 million (2009) |
| Total assets | $ 12.370 billion (2009) |
| Total equity | $ 5.106 billion (2008) |
Number of employees | 24,248 (2009) |
| Divisions | List of Divisions |
| Website | www.fortunebrands.com |
Fortune Brands was a holding company founded in 1969 as American Brands and later renamed in 1997 and split apart in 2011.[clarification needed] The corporate headquarters was in Deerfield, Illinois, in the United States. The company historically had a significant diversity of products. It announced on December 8, 2010, that it planned to focus on its liquor business, and to spin off or sell other parts of the company – including home furnishings and hardware and other golf products.[1][2] The company then sold its Titleist and FootJoy product lines to FILA Korea. On October 3, 2011, it split the remainder of its business into two publicly traded companies: Fortune Brands Home & Security (NYSE: FBHS)[3] and Beam Inc. (NYSE: BEAM). On January 13, 2014, Suntory (headquartered in Osaka, Japan) announced a deal to buy Beam Inc. for about $13.6 billion.[4] The acquisition was completed on April 30, 2014, for a final cost of about $16 billion – when it was also announced that Beam would become a subsidiary of Suntory named Beam Suntory.[5][6]
Contents
1 History
2 Former divisions
2.1 Tobacco
2.2 Insurance
2.3 ACCO
2.4 Golf Division
2.5 Home and hardware
2.6 Spirits
3 References
4 External links
History
The American Tobacco Company was founded in 1890. In the late 1960s, with health concerns seen as posing an increasing threat to the tobacco business, management decided to diversify into other fields and changed the corporate name to American Brands, Inc. Brown & Williamson acquired the tobacco division in 1994.
Former divisions
Tobacco
American Tobacco Company was the original division of American Brands. American Tobacco was sold to British American Tobacco in 1994.[7]
Insurance
American Brands acquired Franklin Life Insurance in 1979. It sold the company to American General in 1994.[8]
ACCO
In 1987 American Brands acquired ACCO, a holding company which owned several office supply subsidiaries. Stapler manufacturer Swingline, Inc., which American Brands had acquired in 1970, was combined with ACCO. In 2005, the company spun off ACCO to shareholders, and immediately thereafter ACCO merged with General Binding Corporation. This merged company is now known as ACCO Brands.
Golf Division
The Acushnet Company, purchased in 1976, became American Brands' golf division. It produced golf balls, shoes, and clubs under the Pinnacle Golf, Titleist, FootJoy and formerly Cobra Golf (now under the ownership of Puma Sport) trademarks. The Acushnet Rubber division, which was Acushnet's original business, was sold off in 1985. Cobra Golf was sold to Puma AG in March 2010, and the other golf brands were sold to Fila in 2011.
Home and hardware
This division, which had annual sales of over $4 billion, included such businesses as Waterloo Industries, Masterbrand Cabinets (and its various subsidiary cabinet lines), Moen faucets, Fypon, Therma-Tru doors, Simonton windows, Master Lock, American Lock, and Vista Window Company, Western Division. Many of these operations passed to Fortune Brands Home & Security when the company was split.
Spirits
Fortune Brands had a stable of well known spirits brands, led by Jim Beam, which it had purchased in 1968.[9]
In July 2005, Fortune Brands and French spirits company Pernod Ricard acquired over 25 additional spirits and wine brands from British holding company Allied Domecq.
In November 2007, Constellation Brands announced a purchase of Fortune Brands' wine operations for $885 million USD, a transaction that added 1,500 acres (6.1 km2) of vineyards, several major brands such as Clos du Bois, and 2.6 million cases per year of "super-premium" class wine production.
After the other product lines were sold and spun off, the remaining spirits business became Beam Inc..
References
^ Aaron Smith, Jim Beam, neat, is company's new strategy, CNN Money, December 8, 2010.
^ Fortune Brands Announces Intent to Separate Company's Three Businesses, The Wall Street Journal, December 8, 2010.
^ Fortune Brands Home & Security Now Independent, Begins Trading on NYSE Archived October 13, 2011, at the Wayback Machine., Businesswire, October 4, 2011.
^ Horovitz, Bruce (January 13, 2014). "Suntory buys spirits maker Beam for $13.6B". USA Today..mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit}.mw-parser-output q{quotes:"""""""'""'"}.mw-parser-output code.cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:inherit;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Lock-green.svg/9px-Lock-green.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-gray-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-red-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration{color:#555}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription span,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration span{border-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration,.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-right{padding-right:0.2em}
^ Beam Suntory completes acquisition of Beam Inc, Suntory.com, 30 April 2014.
^ Pfanner, Eric (May 15, 2014). "Suntory Still has M&A Thirst". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved March 1, 2016. (Subscription required (help)).
^ Ipsen, Erik (1994-04-27). "A $1 Billion Bet That Smoking Has a Future". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2014-11-11.
^ "American General Deal Enfolds Franklin Life For $1.17 Billion Cash". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2014-11-11.
^ "Beam Suntory – History (slideshow)". Beam Suntory. Archived from the original on July 7, 2015. Retrieved August 5, 2017.
External links
- Fortune Brands company web site
