Family-owned Suntory Holdings Ltd. of Japan, which bought U.S. bourbon maker Beam Inc. last year for $13.6 billion, faces the challenge of “meshing two vastly different corporate cultures inside its new global liquor subsidiary, Deerfield, Ill.-based Beam Suntory Inc.,”
the
Wall Street Journal
reported.
Jim Beam master distiller Fred Noe, who is a seventh-generation member of the Jim Beam family, “caused some to cringe” when he embraced a Suntory executive at a promotional event in Tokyo. “Japan frowns on physical contact in a business setting,” the
Journal
article said.
Jim Beam, founded in the 1930s, was sold by the Beam family's business partner in 1968 to a conglomerate that later became Fortune Brands. In 2005, Beam acquired Maker's Mark bourbon, Canadian Club whisky, Sauza tequila and Courvoisier cognac. Fortune spun off Beam as a public company in 2011, and Suntory acquired it in April 2014, keeping the headquarters in the U.S., the
Journal
report noted.
Beam employees hoped that joining a family company “would provide a break from Wall Street pressure,” but instead, they are adapting to a Japanese monthly financial reporting system and are preparing to implement “kaizen,” or the Japanese concept of continuous improvement, the article said. “Any suggestion that Jim Beam's quality can be improved unnerves some company executives,” the report said.
“The Beam acquisition increased Suntory's debt burden by about $10 billion, according to Moody's Investors Service,” the
Journal
reported. To help repay the debt, Suntory has set the ambitious goal of doubling global spirits sales by 2020, the article said.
Suntory's president, Takeshi Niinami, is a Harvard Business School graduate and the first non-family member to lead the company, the
Journal
article said. (Source:
Wall Street Journal
, May 4, 2015.)
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