Dive Brief:
- The MacKinnon family has retained investment bankers to help it sell off the Drambuie liqueur brand, according to the Financial Times.
- The MacKinnons have been associated with the brand for centuries, but they don't actually make the liquor. Drambuie is produced by Morrison Bowmore Distillers, an arm of Japan's Suntory.
- Suntory, which has been on an acquisition spree of late, is seen as a likely buyer of the brand. But rival Diageo has also been in buying mode and could be a suitor.
Dive Insight:
There's a history to Drambuie -- supposedly created by Bonnie Prince Charles, it was also popular with Frank Sinatra and "the Rat Pack" -- that makes the liqueur appealing to a particular segment of the drinking public.
But unfortunately for the liquor brand, young people aren't generally part of that segment.
Getting young adults to drink Drambuie has been the focus of much of the company's marketing efforts of late, but it hasn't proven very successful. Here's hoping the brand's next owner can find a spokesperson to make the drink attractive to Gen Y.
Sadly, Mila Kunis already has a job selling booze to millennials.