Tag: Brown-Forman

Latest Headlines July 28, 2016August 17, 2016

Kindred to open new hospital in Tacoma; Amazon’s Q2 beats top and bottom; orange you glad: Taco Bell’s burrito + Cheetos = ‘peak stoner’; and Ford’s stock dives 8% on poor results

A news summary focused on 10 big employers; updated 7:25 p.m.

KINDRED said it would build a 60-bed inpatient rehabilitation hospital in Tacoma, Wash., in a new joint-venture partnership with CHI Franciscan Health. The new hospital will care for adults recovering from stroke, neurological disease, injury to the brain or spinal cord and other long-term illnesses or injuries. The Louisville-based hospital and nursing home giant will manage the day-to-day operations at the new facility. Subject to regulatory and other approvals, Kindred expects the hospital to open by the first quarter of 2018.

In its Seattle market, Kindred already operates two transitional-care hospitals, two nursing centers, two co-located hospital-based sub-acute units, and it provides home health and hospice services. CHI Franciscan is affiliated with Catholic Health Initiatives, the third-largest nonprofit health system in the nation, with operations in 19 states (press release). Kindred has more than 2,200 employees in Louisville, and 102,000 company-wide. More about Kindred.

UPS is considering a $106 million expansion of its ground hub in Lexington (Herald-Leader).

AMAZON: The retailer just reported second-quarter financial results that beat Wall Street’s forecasts on the top and bottom lines. It earned $1.78 a share on sales of $30.4 billion. Analysts were expecting $1.11 EPS on revenue of $29.6 billion, according to FactSet (MarketWatch and press release). The company’s stock rode a roller coaster in extended trading: Shares are now up 2.7%, or $20.34, to $722.

GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt bought 50,000 shares of company stock at $31.45 a share on Tuesday, for a total cost of $673,000 — a bullish sign he thinks the stock may be headed higher (Reuters). Shares closed today at $31.25, barely changed.

TACO BELL is introducing its latest mash-up experiment, the Cheetos Burrito, mid-August in Cincinnati for $1. This is the second version sold by the Yum unit; it rolled one out last spring, the Cheetos Crunchwrap Slider, that GrubStreet dismissed as the “height of laziness” (GrubStreet). According to the Orange County Register, it’s a burrito “stuffed with crunchy Cheetos, buttery white rice, seasoned beef and nacho cheese” (Register). We can only imagine how the concoction will taste, muses Uproxx. “Will the Cheetos inside get soggy and soft? Or will they maintain that crunch that everyone loves?” Its verdict is already in: “Peak Stoner” (Uproxx).

FORD‘s stock fell 8.2%, or $1.13, closing at $12.71 a share on weak second-quarter financial results. Revenue totaled $39.49 billion and adjusted earning per share came in at 52 cents, below the FactSet consensus of 60 cents. But that’s a beat on the consensus revenue forecast of $36.31 billion, according to analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters (press release and MarketWatch).

BROWN-FORMAN: How one bourbon distillery makes its handcrafted barrels (Al.com).

In other news, embattled University of Louisville president James Ramsey agreed to resign yesterday, effective immediately, in a deal with the school’s trustees where he’ll be paid $690,000 in severance, the equivalent of about two years of his university salary only. Provost Neville Pinto will lead the university until a new president is selected.

Chairman Ulysses “Junior” Bridgeman said the board rejected Ramsey’s proposal to serve for up to one year as interim president. Bridgeman indicated that at one point the board considered firing Ramsey, 67, outright (Courier-Journal).

His exit caps a tumultuous period where Gov. Matt Bevin fired the previous board of trustees last month because, he said, it had become too dysfunctional to deal with multiple scandals on Ramsey’s watch.

Latest Headlines July 27, 2016July 28, 2016

Yum China buyout said stalled as two bidders balk at terms; U.S. farmers binge on rye as Brown-Forman whiskey demand soars; CJ owner Gannett’s stock tanks 9% on weak Q2 results

A news summary focused on 10 big employers; updated 4:03 p.m.

KFC Shanghai — A KFC in Shanghai, where the Yum China division is headquartered.

YUM: Two of what may be the only serious bidders for Yum’s mammoth China Division have submitted offers — including one for just $2 billion — but have failed to reach a final agreement for a business once expected to command $10 billion, according to The Financial Times. The bidders are China-based private equity fund Primavera and Singapore sovereign wealth fund Temasek.

Primavera made the $2 billion offer for part of the franchise, people briefed on the talks said. “The bid conformed to Yum’s original conditions for the sale, but the buyout group and Yum could not agree on pricing,” the FT says.

Temasek also made an offer — the newspaper didn’t say how much — but also couldn’t reach an agreement on the 7,200 KFC and Pizza Hut units. They accounted for more than half Yum’s revenue last year.

The Louisville-based fast food giant put the China operations on the auction block last year after being pressured to do so by investors including Corvex Management founder Keith Meister. CEO Greg Creed is preparing to lead a road show that Yum expects will end with a spinoff by Oct. 31.

But the FT’s report raises doubts about the timetable, particularly after Bloomberg News reported that a consortium of the only other known bidders dropped out in May: private equity firm KKR and Chinese state investor CIC.

A company spokesperson whom the FT didn’t identify said Yum is “making great progress toward the separation of our China business,” which last year accounted for 61% of Yum’s $11.1 billion in revenue and 39% of $1.9 billion in profits.

The FT’s report was published yesterday. This afternoon, Wall Street wasn’t worried; Yum’s stock closed less than 1% higher, or 47 cents, to $89.72 — just below its record trading high of $90.38 on Monday (FT).

BROWN-FORMAN: Racing to meet consumer demand for whiskey, U.S. farmers planted 1.76 million acres of rye for the 2016-17 season, the most since 1989 and a 12% increase from a year ago. Planted in autumn and harvested in mid-summer, rye fell out of favor over the past decade as other crops produced bigger profits (Reuters).

In Nashville yesterday, Jack Daniel’s officially opened its second retail store — the first in its 150-year history outside the distiller’s corporate hometown of Lynchburg. “We get about 275,000 visitors that come see us every year, and there’s certainly a lot more people in this world, and we’d like to take Lynchburg to them,” said Dave Stang, director of events and sponsorships. The store doesn’t sell its namesake liquor :(, but does sell Jack Daniel’s-branded merchandise (News Channel 5).

Meanwhile, the Jack Daniel’s Barrel Hunt promotion is coming to South Africa as part of the distiller’s 150th anniversary — a global scavenger hunt to find 150 handcrafted barrels at historic and cultural sites (Biz Community). Clues for the next barrel, in Lithuania’s Kaunas, will be revealed tomorrow. The most recent found was in the U.K.’s Manchester; still to be found: barrels in Prague and Riccione, Italy. How the hunt works.

And Brown-Forman stockholders hold their annual meeting tomorrow at 9:30 a.m. in the company’s Louisville headquarters conference center at 850 Dixie Highway. Board Chairman Garvin Brown IV will oversee the meeting. On the agenda, according to the proxy statement:

Electing 12 directors to the board. They include three new members initially elected this spring, all fifth-generation members of the Brown family controlling the company. They are Campbell P. Brown, Marshall B. Farrer, and Laura L. Frazier.
Voting on a proposal to amend the Restated Certificate of Incorporation to increase the number of authorized shares of Class A common stock in connection with the company’s previously announced two-for-one stock split.

GE/HAIER: In Everett, Wash., a Daily Herald reader takes issue Continue reading “Yum China buyout said stalled as two bidders balk at terms; U.S. farmers binge on rye as Brown-Forman whiskey demand soars; CJ owner Gannett’s stock tanks 9% on weak Q2 results” →

The A-list July 27, 2016August 14, 2016

21c co-founder Steve Wilson has a ‘death clock,’ a private jet, and other things we learned from that amazing Louisville Magazine profile

Associate Editor Arielle Christian wrote the 14-pager in the July issue, and it’s still brilliant.

He has a “death clock.” It’s Austrian artist Werner Reiterer‘s “My Predicted Timeline. “The piece looks like a large alarm clock — a black bulky box with LED-red digital numbers — but instead of time to wake up, it’s time never to wake up again.” Reiterer based Wilson’s predicted time of death on an actuary test. (Wilson’s 68.) If the clock is right, on May 27, Wilson had 11 years, eight months, 18 days, zero hours, 52 minutes and 34 seconds left.

He has a tattoo on the middle of his forearm. It’s a green four-leaf clover outlined in black.

Steve Wilson Laura Lee Brown — Wilson and Lee

The 21c Museum Hotel chain he founded with his wife Laura Lee Brown, the Brown-Forman heiress, has 1,000 employees, and more than 60,000 square feet of exhibition space. “I never expected it to be such a big enterprise, to have people identify with it so strongly,” he says. The first week the giant “David” statue was installed outside the flagship hotel on West Main Street, “an incensed woman wrote a letter saying she’d never be able to bring her 12-year-old daughter downtown again.” There are three more 21cs in the works, in Kansas City, Nashville, and Indianapolis. Other possible locations include New York City, New Orleans and Cuba.

At the 2014 Art Basel fair in Miami, Wilson bought $117,000 worth of art in less than 40 minutes.

Growing up on his father’s Wickliffe farm, he was allergic to everything: hay, corn dust, animal dandruff. He would not be a farmer, disappointing his father, a man who came from a family of them. “Even though he’s dead now,” Wilson says, “I’m still trying to prove to him that I’m good enough. I don’t think that will ever change.”

He bought his famous red eyeglass frames on a whim in Paris. But he doesn’t see well enough to read much because he has Fuchs’ dystrophy, which is partly why he has a driver to get around, and needs someone to read restaurant menus to him.

21c has its own jet, a Cessna Citation II, and it’s Continue reading “21c co-founder Steve Wilson has a ‘death clock,’ a private jet, and other things we learned from that amazing Louisville Magazine profile” →

The A-list July 25, 2016August 1, 2016

Royal ties that bind: Brown-Forman’s Barzun-Bingham connection shined bright in the Brexit shocker

By Jim Hopkins
Boulevard Publisher

The spirits giant Brown-Forman depends on the U.K. for 10% of its annual sales, and the rest of Europe for another 21% — making Britain’s surprise vote to quit the E.U. especially meaningful last month. Brexit also recalled Brown-Forman’s familial ties to the Kingdom through the techie U.S. ambassador Matthew Barzun.

“Well, it’s been a big day,” he Tweeted the day after the June 23 referendum, “and as @POTUS says, our unmatched & unbreakable #SpecialRelationship will endure.”

Well, it’s been a big day…and as @POTUS says, our unmatched & unbreakable #SpecialRelationship will endure. https://t.co/cmOp7Gy0Xr

— Matthew Barzun (@MatthewBarzun) June 24, 2016

Barzun, 45, a part-year Louisville resident, is a former technology entrepreneur from the Internet’s early days, becoming only the fourth employee of CNET Networks in 1993. He worked there until 2004 in roles including chief strategy officer and executive vice president, according to his State Department biography.

Barzun has been married to Brown-Forman heiress Brooke Brown Barzun since 1999. Her father was the late Brown-Forman CEO Owsley Brown II, and her mother is Owsley’s widow, the philanthropist Christy Brown.

A fifth-generation Brown

The company is one of Louisville’s most storied businesses. It was founded by Brooke’s great-great grandfather George Garvin Brown in 1870. The distiller employs 1,300 workers in the city and another 3,300 worldwide, where the company distributes Jack Daniel’s, Finlandia vodka and other marquee brands in about 160 countries. Tomorrow, shareholders will hold their annual meeting at the Dixie Highway headquarters; three board members up for re-election also are fifth-generation members of the family controlling the nearly 150-year-old distiller.

The Barzuns’ rarefied social and political connections were on full display in November 2013, when the couple rode in a gilded, horse-drawn carriage to Buckingham Palace to present his credentials to Queen Elizabeth II; photo, top, and in this video:

The Barzuns also entertained the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall during a reception last year at the ambassador’s official Winfield House residence in London, shortly before the royals visited Louisville at Christy Brown’s invitation:

Barzuns and Prince of Wales — Prince Charles, the Duchess of Cornwall, and Matthew and Brooke Barzun.

President Obama handed Continue reading “Royal ties that bind: Brown-Forman’s Barzun-Bingham connection shined bright in the Brexit shocker” →

Latest Headlines July 25, 2016August 28, 2016

KFC to double outlets in Germany; Jack Daniel’s is going down under; Papa John’s quiere gerentes que harlan Inglis; Taco Bell wants 😀 applicants; and a UPS wedding in Fla.

A news summary focused on 10 big employers; updated 1 p.m.

KFC plans to more than double its presence in Germany over the next five years, to 300 restaurants from 140, according to Insa Klasing, head of the chicken giant’s German subsidiary. Where most locations were major city drive-ins, “today we are also on the market with smaller restaurants,” Klasing said. But even with 300 sites, KFC will still be overshadowed by the nation’s biggest fast-food chain: McDonald’s (Europe Online). And the addition of 160 restaurants would increase total KFCs by just over a 1% vs. the current 15,000 worldwide (KFC corporate website).

KFC bucket of chicken In India, KFC is re-emphasizing chicken at its approximately 300 restaurants, two years after a push to sell more vegetarian burgers. In the last six months, the Yum division has rolled out three campaigns for its new chicken items, including the Chizza fried chicken slathered with cheese. During the same period, it didn’t start any new ads for vegetarian meals. KFC won’t stop selling vegetarian meals or launch vegetarian options, which still account for 30% of its India menu. But it won’t invest significantly on it either, KFC India marketing chief Lluis Ruiz Ribot said in an interview: “While chicken has always been a large part of our menu, 2016 is the year that we have refocused on our core,” he said (Quartz).

BROWN-FORMAN: In Australia, Jack Daniel’s assistant Master Distiller Chris Fletcher will host a series of master classes and tastings in Sydney, Brisbane, and Perth, as part of the Brown-Forman brand’s 150th anniversary celebrations (Au Review). BF executives toured Ontario’s Collingwood, where it distills Collingwood Canadian Whiskey, and saw first-hand the impact of a $100,000 company donation to the YMCA and a community hospital. “We work from the corporate office and a lot of the things that we do, we only get to see on paper,” said BF civil engagement manager Karen Krinock. “We knew what the ask was, but to see both the YMCA and Collingwood General and Marine Hospital was really meaningful” (Enterprise Bulletin). Louisville-based BF employs 1,300 in the city, and another 3,300 worldwide.

HUMANA: The Justice Department’s lawsuit to block the $37 billion Humana-Aetna merger on antitrust grounds seeks, ironically, to prevent what Obamacare aimed to achieve: government-directed oligopolies, according to The Wall Street Journal editorial board. “The new regulations and mandates since the law passed in 2010 are designed to encourage consolidation,” the paper’s lead editorial says. “But now the trust busters are fretting that these giants will have less incentive to innovate to reduce costs and improve quality, and patients will have fewer choices” (WSJ). Humana employs 12,500 in its Louisville hometown, and a total 50,000 across the country.

PAPA JOHN’S: In the San Francisco Bay area, prospective managers who can communicate with customers in English are especially welcome, although bilingual skills are a plus, too, according to a new Craigslist helped-wanted ad for Papa John’s in Concord, Pleasant Hill and Martinez (Craigslist). In surrounding Contra Costa County, 24.4% of the population is Hispanic vs. 23.5% for the San Francisco Bay area; 37.6% for California, and 17.6% for the nation as a whole (Census).

TACO BELL: Language skills aren’t the hiring issue at Detroit area Taco Bells, but something much more basic: Applicants “must be able to come to work on time, show up for scheduled shifts, and be productive when at work.” Also: be happy (Craigslist). Meanwhile, on Craigslist’s Missed Connections section for the Seattle area, a man is looking for a woman Continue reading “KFC to double outlets in Germany; Jack Daniel’s is going down under; Papa John’s quiere gerentes que harlan Inglis; Taco Bell wants 😀 applicants; and a UPS wedding in Fla.” →

Latest Headlines July 22, 2016July 23, 2016

Lexington judge won’t budge on $5.3M bias award against UPS; Humana’s got slim chance beating anti-trusters; BF nabs top disability award; and Chinese nationalists expand protests beyond KFC

A news summary focused on 10 big employers; updated 4:37 p.m.

UPS: This morning in Lexington, Ky., a Fayette Circuit judge denied a motion to overturn a jury’s April verdict and $5.3 million in damages to eight black men who claimed a hostile work environment at a UPS facility in the city. Judge Ernesto Scorscone also rejected UPS attorney Neal Shah’s motion for a new trial. Shah didn’t have any comment after the hearing (Herald-Leader).

HUMANA and Aetna have only a slight chance to reverse the Justice Department’s decision yesterday to block their $37 billion merger, analysts and investors told Reuters, even as the two insurance giants promise to fight tooth and nail to win. “My initial impression from the complaint . . . is that the Justice Department and the states are on much safer ground” in their argument against an Aetna-Humana, said Beau Buffier, co-head of the antitrust group at Shearman & Sterling in New York (Reuters). Meanwhile, New Hampshire and Florida — with an especially big population of seniors — joined the Justice Department suit filed yesterday to block its $37 billion acquisition by Aetna of Hartford; Illinois joined the suit yesterday (Union Leader and News 4 Jax).

In more encouraging news, Humana was awarded a six-year Defense Department contract for the East Region of TRICARE, the military health care program providing benefits to service members, retirees and their families. Under the award, Humana’s service area would expand to about six million beneficiaries in a 30-state region. The Louisville-based insurer already has the contract for the South Region: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, most of Texas and the Ft. Campbell-area in Kentucky. The new East Region is a combination of the current South and North regions (press release). The contract is worth $41 million (Federal News Radio). Humana’s announcement, nearly buried in yesterday’s DOJ news, to exit eight of 19 state health-care exchanges drew critics, who saw the move as a direct challenge to the Obama administration to block the Humana-Aetna merger (New York Post).

BROWN-FORMAN was awarded a score of 100 in the 2016 Disability Equality Index survey, by the US Business Leadership Network and the American Association of People with Disabilities. The survey awarded points in four major categories: culture and leadership, company-wide access, employment practices, and community engagement and support services. This year, 83 Fortune 1000-size companies completed the survey; two-thirds of these top the Fortune 500 list; complete list (news release).

KFC: Chinese nationalists have added iPhones and Continue reading “Lexington judge won’t budge on $5.3M bias award against UPS; Humana’s got slim chance beating anti-trusters; BF nabs top disability award; and Chinese nationalists expand protests beyond KFC” →

A fifth-generation Brown

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