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Brown-Forman Corporation Key Facts









Key Facts About Brown-Forman
- Brown-Forman Corporation, one of the largest American-owned companies
in the wine and spirits business, is a diversified producer and marketer
of fine quality consumer products.
- Through Brown-Forman Beverages Worldwide, Brown-Forman produces and
markets many of the most well-known and best-loved wines and spirits in
the world. They include Jack Daniels, Canadian Mist, Southern Comfort,
Early Times, Korbel champagnes, Fetzer wines, and Bolla wines.
- Through Lenox, Incorporated, Brown-Forman manufactures and markets
the china, crystal, collectibles, and giftware of Lenox; the contemporary
tabletop and giftware designs of Dansk; the silver, crystal, china, and
giftware of Gorham; the silver and pewter products of Kirk Stieff; and
the luggage and leather goods of Hartmann.
- The company was founded in 1870 by George Garvin Brown, a young pharmaceuticals
salesman in Louisville, Kentucky, who had the then-novel idea of selling
top-grade whisky in sealed glass bottles.
- Out of his idea grew a company that in fiscal 1997 had sales of $1.8
billion, of which $1.3 billion was accounted for by sales of wines and
spirits.
- The companys fiscal year runs from May 1 to April 30.
- Assets at the close of the 1997 fiscal year were $1.43 billion.
- Stockholders of record as of April 30, 1997, numbered 9,183 of whom
3,156 owned Class A Common, or voting stock, 5,054 owned Class B Common,
or non-voting stock, and 973 owned Preferred Stock, also non-voting.
- Return on average common stockholders equity, one measure of
any publicly-traded companys success, historically has been high
at Brown-Forman; in fiscal 1997 it was 25.2%.
- The company is headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, and employs 7,500
people in the U.S. and abroad.
Copyright © 1997 Brown-Forman Corporation.
Revision August 25, 1997