Friday, February 11, 2011

Spanish Supreme Court confirms the ownership of Havana Club trademark by Pernod Ricard joint venture

Spanish Supreme Court confirms the ownership of Havana Club trademark by Pernod Ricard joint venture

Download the press release (PDF)

For the third time Spanish Courts refused Bacardi´s attempt to challenge the ownership of the famous trademark for Cuban rum

Madrid, February 3, 2011
The Supreme Court of Spain today confirmed the Havana Club joint venture’s ownership of the Havana Club trademark in Spain. This is the third time the Spanish courts have rejected Bacardi’s challenge to the joint venture’s rights over the trademark. The joint venture’s ownership was previously recognised by the Spanish lower court in 2005 and then again on appeal by the Provincial Court of Madrid in 2007.

Ian FitzSimons, General Counsel, Pernod Ricard: "This decision is a victory for the Havana Club brand. This was a blatant attempt by our competitor, Bacardi, to claim rights in a trademark more than 30 years after an unused registration had expired. Our business in Spain was built from scratch and today sells more than 2.7 million litres in the country."

"This judgment allows us to continue to develop in Spain our great range of authentic Cuban rums", said Philippe Coutin, Managing Director, Pernod Ricard Spain.

Havana Club trademark is well-known in Spain, registered in more than 120 countries around the world and has become one of the most valuable brands in the spirits industry. Havana Club Cuban rum is the number 2 international rum worldwide (excluding the US market) and is also listed as the third highest brand on IWSR’s list of Elite brands.

About Havana Club
Havana Club is amongst the fastest growing spirit brands worldwide, having experienced double digit growth nearly every year since the 1993 joint venture between the Cuban company Corporation Cuba Ron S.A. and the Pernod Ricard Group. The sales of Havana Club reached 3.5 million 9-liter cases in the fiscal year ending June 2010. In 2009, Havana Club ranked 23rd in the Impact Top 100 (source: Impact database of international brands of premium international spirits). The company is based in Havana and exports to 124 countries throughout the world, with the exception of the USA, where Cuban products are banned due to the trade embargo. Please visit our website for more information: www.havana-club.com

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Pernod Ricard CEO Pringuet Says He Has No Plans to Make Any Acquisitions

Pernod-Ricard SA, the maker of Chivas Regal and Absolut vodka, has no plans to make acquisitions as it focuses on innovating its own brands. “Today, the strategy is extremely clear: no acquisitions,” Chief Executive Officer Pierre Pringuet said in an interview in Paris, when asked if he was interested in Fortune Brands Inc.’s drinks unit. He said that there is no “clear gap” in Pernod’s portfolio of products. After three “major” purchases in the last eight years, Pernod is focusing on growing without making more, Pringuet said. The acquisitions include buying Allied Domecq Plc in 2005. Fortune, the maker of Jim Beam bourbon, said in December it plans to split into three separate units, spurring speculation that companies including Pernod and Diageo Plc, the world’s biggest spirits company, may bid for its drink brands. Distillers are seeking to expand into new categories, price ranges and geographies through acquisitions and product introductions as consumers in developed markets including Europe and the U.S. become harder to please. Pernod wants “to be the most innovative” distiller in the world, Pringuet said. While Pernod would probably like to own some of Fortune’s spirits brands, its “high leverage” means it is “unlikely to be in a strong primary buyer position versus players like Diageo and/or Bacardi,” analysts including Trevor Stirling at Sanford C. Bernstein in London wrote in a note dated Jan. 10. Not a Necessity Pernod has the highest ratio of net debt-to-earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization of the major European distillers, according to Bloomberg data. According to Pringuet, the Paris-based company isn’t short of any particular spirit categories. “Maybe I’m thinking ‘we lack a bourbon whiskey.’ It’s nice enough, but is it a necessity? No.” Pernod sold its Wild Turkey bourbon brand in 2009 to Davide Campari-Milano SpA to cut debt after buying V&S Vin & Sprit AB. The Allied Domecq acquisition and the purchase of Vin & Sprit added brands including Absolut and Beefeater gin. The moves “were all transforming acquisitions,” Pringuet said. Acquiring Absolut was “necessary to strengthen our position in the U.S. and have growth in many other markets.”Pernod rose 60 cents, or 0.8 percent, to 71.66 euros as of the 5:30 p.m. close of trading in Paris. To contact the reporter on this story: Clementine Fletcher in London cfletcher5@bloomberg.net. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Celeste Perri at cperri@bloomberg.net

Absolut Vodka Shame: Absolut Vodka goes wild with new flavor of cocktail

Another Win for Pernod Ricard, Absolut Shame

Bacardi loses a round in Havana Club fight

Spain's Supreme Court ruled against Bacardi this week in the long-running battle over the rights to the Havana Club rum trademark in that country.

The court found that a joint venture between Pernod-Ricard and the Cuban government owns the rights to the brand in Spain. Pernod claims this is the third time that Spanish courts have ruled in its favor.
But Bacardi found positive signs in the Spanish ruling and said it plans to take further legal moves to protect its ownership and trademark rights to the Havana Club brand in Spain.

Bacardi pointed to the court's ruling that Spanish law does not recognize the validity of the acquisition of the Havana Club trademark by the Pernod joint venture. The Bermuda-based company, with U.S. offices in Coral Gables, said the reason the court did not rule in its favor was due to a ``legal technicality'' regarding the statute of limitations.

The Spanish court ruling is just the latest volley in a dispute that has dragged on for more than a decade, winding its way through a variety of courts and government agencies in the United States and Spain.
-- ELAINE WALKER

Corporate theft violates the rights of the individual and those that would defend them. Pernod Ricard and Absolut Vodka continue to ravage an opportunities for which they had no right, no consent.