Brown-Forman Deals Finlandia Vodka to Coca-Cola European Bottling Partner

June 20, 2023

Coca-Cola HBC AG serves 29 markets in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, offering a wide variety of beverages, dairy and snack products.

Andy Hanacek

Brown-Forman Corp. has reached an agreement to sell the Finlandia brand of vodka to Coca-Cola HBC AG for $220 million, according to a release distributed by Brown-Forman. The deal is expected to close in the second half of this year.

Brown-Forman acquired Finlandia in multiple phases from what was then Altia Corp., gaining full ownership in 2004. Coca-Cola HBC AG is a Switzerland-based CPG business and strategic bottling partner of The Coca-Cola Co., with distribution in Ireland, central and eastern Europe, the Middle East and Nigeria. The company’s web site states that it also partners with beverage businesses such as Monster Energy, Edrington, Brown-Forman and Campari to sell their products. In addition to a large portfolio of beverages, Coca-Cola HBC AG sells dairy and snack products to consumers in many of those markets.

Zoran Bogdanovic, CEO of Coca-Cola HBC AG said in the release that the Finlandia acquisition supports the company’s mixability strategy with its core, non-alcoholic, ready-to-drink portfolio.

About the Author

Andy Hanacek | Senior Editor

Andy Hanacek has covered meat, poultry, bakery and snack foods as a B2B editor for nearly 20 years, and has toured hundreds of processing plants and food companies, sharing stories of innovation and technological advancement throughout the food supply chain. In 2018, he won a Folio:Eddie Award for his unique "From the Editor's Desk" video blogs, and he has brought home additional awards from Folio and ASBPE over the years. In addition, Hanacek led the Meat Industry Hall of Fame for several years and was vice president of communications for We R Food Safety, a food safety software and consulting company.