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Diageo sells Archers brand to De Kuyper Royal Distillers
Diageo has announced the sale of its Archers peach schnapps brand De Kuyper Royal Distillers for an undisclosed sum.
Speaking about the sale, the drinks giant inferred that the reason behind the decision was due to the brand’s performance and future prospects, hinting that it was always looking at “opportunities to maximise growth over the long term”.
Diageo’s president, Europe John Kennedy said: “We are committed to creating value for all our stakeholders through delivering consistent and efficient growth, including actively shaping our portfolio towards opportunities that will maximise growth over the long-term.”
Kennedy added: “We take a disciplined approach to capital allocation and this announcement continues our track-record of active portfolio management.”
De Kuyper has revealed that the British brand icon is the perfect complement to its premium cocktail liqueurs portfolio and is “in keeping with its ‘Own the Cocktail’ vision.
The Dutch family company also disclosed that it is further strengthening its position, especially in the UK and that it “wants to own the peach category”.
De Kuyper CEO Mark de Witte explained: “With Peachtree we do so in a number of important cocktail markets, but in the UK the peach category is historically owned by Archers. We had the choice to keep competing with Archers or to try to acquire Archers and add the brand to our premium liqueur portfolio. We decided to do the latter. Archers is a high-quality liqueur with a great heritage, deeply rooted in UK consumers’ minds when it comes to peach liqueurs. This strong brand performs very stably and has remained relevant for consumers in the UK ever since its launch. For De Kuyper the brand will have high priority and we will contribute our over 325 years of expertise in liqueurs and our specific knowledge in the peach category to bring out the best in Archers.”
De Kuyper global marketing director Godelief van Erve added: “We see an interesting growth platform for Archers in the category of cocktails and will utilise the insights, experience and best practices we gained with Peachtree. Our focus stays on the current audience where the brand is popular and which is fitting very well with the cocktail-drinker target group.”
According to Diageo, the sale will not have a material impact on earnings per share (EPS). As part of this transaction, Diageo has agreed a 24-month manufacturing supply agreement with De Kuyper Royal Distillers.
Archers, which launched back in 1986, is a component in many classic cocktails such as the WooWoo and Sex on the Beach.
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