Mr. Burrows: Pernod Ricard was formed in 1975 by the merging together of Pernod and Ricard, two independent family owned companies in the drinks business here in France. Their motivation was the creation of the single market of Europe andthe fact that drinks companies is France were coming under pressure from social change and social attitudes towards the consumption of beverage alcohol. They also wanted to extend their business beyond the boundaries of France into export market and also, of course, to defend their home markets against imported products particularly whisky, which was starting to gain some considerable following in France. And so, Pernod Ricard was formed and pursued a course of developing both organically and inorganically over the following twenty years or so which included diversification into non-wines and spirits businesses. By the end of the 1990’s, Pernod Ricard was a major company within the drinks business, but also had its interests in soft drinks, in groceries distribution, in fruit preparations and in a number of other businesses. Then, opportunity arose. The Seagram spirits and wine business, which had been bought by Vivendi, was out up for sale. That caused for Pernod Ricard a major revision of strategy and decision to go firmly after the Seagram business in partnership with Diago, but also, in order to fund that, to focus on the core business of Pernod Ricard, which is wines and spirits. So if you want to look at the effects of that on the last two years, it has first of all been the completion of the Seagram acquisition which has doubled in terms of size Pernod Ricard’s wines and spirits operations, and it has moved Pernod Ricard into the top three companies in the world in wines and spirits, and has also led to its selling its non-core businesses. Now Pernod Ricard is a pure wines and spirits company, operating in just about every important distilled spirits market in the world and lying in the number three position internationally.
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