Heublein
Industry | COO ) |
---|---|
Number of employees | 28,500 |
Heublein Inc. (also known as Heublein Spirits) was an American producer and distributor of
It was acquired in 1982 by the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. Its successor, RJR Nabisco, began selling off many of Heublein's assets in the years that followed, with the Heublein division purchased by Grand Metropolitan in 1987. After more sell-offs of Heublein brands, Grand Metropolitan ceased using the name, incorporating the business into International Distillers & Vintners.[1]
History
Heublein began as a restaurant founded in 1862 in
In 1906, the business acquired the rights to distribute (and later produce)
In 1939 Heublein acquired all rights to
Heublein's line of pre-mixed alcoholic cocktails comprised such traditional drinks as Manhattans, martinis, stingers, sidecars, and daiquiris, as well as such trendy drinks as the Brass Monkey, Pink Squirrel, Hobo's Wife, in addition to such Tiki drinks as the Mai Tai, Dr. Funk, and Navy Grog.[6][7][8] In 1969, Heublein began selling some of these cocktails in eight-ounce cans. In the 1970s, Heublein introduced "Malcolm Hereford's Cow", a new line of flavored milk, 30-proof beverage (15% alcohol) that was popular primarily with women in particular, and college students of either gender.[9] It became a fad briefly before vanishing into obscurity.
Heublein purchased Hamm's Brewery in 1965, sold it in 1973 to a group of Hamm's wholesalers, from whom Olympia Brewing Company bought it in 1975.
It also made many acquisitions outside of the liquor market, including
Acquisition and sell-off
In 1982, the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company acquired Heublein Inc. for $1.4 billion. In the corporate reorganizations that followed the merger of R.J. Reynolds and Nabisco, the resulting corporation, RJR Nabisco, began selling off many of Heublein's assets. RJR Nabisco sold Kentucky Fried Chicken to PepsiCo in 1986 and sold the Heublein division and its alcoholic beverage brands to Grand Metropolitan in 1987.[11]
In 1994, Heublein sold some of its wine and brandy business to Canandaigua Wine Company.[12] In 1996, Grand Metropolitan ceased using the Heublein name, incorporating the business into International Distillers & Vintners.[13]
Notes
- Governor's Foot Guarda unit in the Connecticut state militia, originally charged with guarding and escorting the Governor of Connecticut.
- ^ Some sources have 1895 for the year of acquiring A1 Sauce rights, but 1895 doesn't fit well in the originating Brand & Co. Ltd.'s historical timeline in Britain,[4] and is not supported by advertising collectibles on eBay until 1907. The source of the more likely A1 Sauce license date of 1906[3] describes it not as a license or rights, but that Heublein bought the whole company from England, something easily shown to be untrue by the English company and product's continued existence until 1959.[4] Heublein kept the product name of Brand's A.1. Sauce into the middle of the 1930s, when the original brand name of Brand's was removed, along with the second of the two now larger dots in A•1•, as it became known as just A•1 Sauce. In the middle of the 1960s, the word "Steak" was inserted, just as the remaining dot was removed. By 1966, "A1 Steak Sauce" was the name that would endure beyond the 20th century. The 1906 introduction into America, along with minor name changes in the middle of the 1930s and 1960s decades are all well supported by a correlation between dates and the brand name in the advertising itself (not in the seller's loose description) of pertinent advertising collectibles, usually available on the eBay online auction web site.
- The Great Warhad already been raging in Europe for eighteen months by the time of incorporation, and with its immediate aftermath establishing a new business market in Europe was impossible for the rest of that decade, as Europe's needs went beyond American condiment offices. In the 1920s, Heublein could sell only A1 Sauce, and held the rights to do so only in the US. It seems unlikely that it could get or would need a London and Frankfurt office until the repeal of Prohibition in 1933 at the earliest.
References
- ^ Heublein Name Fades Away
- ^ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/intoxicating-history-canned-cocktail-180976145/
- ^ a b c "Heublein, Inc". International Directory of Company Histories.1988. Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 7 November 2013.
- ^ a b c "Brand & Co – Historical Timeline". Grace's Guide to British Industrial History. Grace's Guide Online Library, Oxford, UK. Retrieved 8 November 2013.
- ISBN 978-0-06-054218-4.
- ^ Berry, Jeff (2017). Sippin' Safari (10th Anniversary ed.). New York: Cocktail Kingdom. p. 221.
- ^ Graphic representation purposes only. "Heublein produced ready-to-drink Tiki cocktails from around 1967–1973". twitter.com/therumtrader/. Retrieved 22 March 2019.
- ^ "Heublein Ad in Life magazine". Life (March 21, 1969): 74. 21 March 1969. Retrieved 22 March 2019.
- ^ "Modern Living: Cows with a Kick". Time. 1976-04-19. Archived from the original on February 20, 2011.
- ^ Steven Kolpan (1999). A Sense Of Place. Psychology Press. p. 97.
- ^ Hicks, Jonathan (1987-01-17). "Grand met to buy nabisco's heublein". New York Times. Retrieved 2009-06-19.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-01-11.
- ^ Heublein Name Fades Away