C&C ‘open’ to acquiring liqueur brands

C&C GROUP is looking to strengthen its spirits and liqueurs division through bolt-on acquisitions.

Any likely move would be for particular brands, rather than company takeovers. Additionally, any acquisition would probably form part of the group’s long-term strategy and not be an immediate priority — although the group has established a strategy group to keep abreast of market opportunities.

C&C’s spirits and liqueurs division — which includes brands such as Carolan’s Irish Cream, Tullamore Dew Irish Whiskey and the Italian liqueur Frangelico — saw operating profit grow 28.9% to €9.8 million for the six months to the end of August and revenue increase nearly 25% to €36.1m.

Operating margin in the division was up 0.8% at 27.1%. Tullamore Dew saw its volumes rise 25% on a year-on-year basis, and Carolan’s showed strong recovery in its core geographical market of North America.

Group chief executive Maurice Pratt said: “Performance in the spirits division is very encouraging and it’s showing strong organic growth. It’s the one area where we’d like to make more bolt-on acquisitions. We don’t need one at present, but there are also very high acquisition prices being paid at the moment and we won’t pay stupid amounts.”

C&C’s overall strong revenue growth of 27% for the first half of its financial year was mainly driven by the growth in its successful cider brands: Bulmers here and Magners in Britain.

An upgrade of the spirits and liqueurs division would partly be in response to the group losing the distribution rights to wine brands owned by the Fosters Group — including the likes of Penfolds and Wolf Blass — a move which will officially take hold early next year and which will reduce profits in the distribution division. However, the group said this doesn’t necessarily mean C&C will automatically acquire a wine brand.

“We’d be open to considering any liqueur, wine or spirit brand,” a spokesperson said yesterday.