Pernod Ricard has acquired a majority stake in Cockorico, a Lyon-based ready-to-serve cocktail company.
The Paris-headquartered group has made the investment via its domestic unit – Pernod Ricard France – and will provide distribution and guidance to the brand’s founders, who will remain with the business. Financial terms were not disclosed.
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Cockorico was founded in Lyon in 2019 by three spirits and hospitality business experts – mixologist Marc Bonneton and entrepreneurs Julien Maurel and Geoffroy Clavel. The brand offers pre-mixed, ready-to-serve bottled cocktails including an Old Fashioned, a Cosmopolitan and a Negroni.
Presently, the Cockorico is only sold in France. When asked by Just Drinks, Pernod Ricard declined to disclose its sales volumes.
Philippe Coutin, chairman of Pernod Ricard France, said: “We are delighted to begin this partnership with Cockorico, which has experienced an exceptional growth since its creation. We firmly believe that we will achieve even more together by leveraging both the strength of our distribution network and our expertise in ready-to-serve products.
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“Our collaboration also opens up opportunities to develop new projects together through the combination of our highly complementary innovation capabilities.”
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By GlobalDataBonneton added: “We share common values with Pernod Ricard centred around ‘conviviality’, stringent quality requirements and excellence of our products. We are very excited about this strategic alliance in ready-to-serve.
“When we created Cockorico three years ago, we sought to make premium cocktails more widely available. Driven by a passion to create, we have been able to innovate to meet new expectations of our customers and consumers. From tomorrow, thanks to the Pernod Ricard distribution network, we will continue and accelerate our development.”
Prior to the Cockorico investment, Pernod Ricard’s pre-mixed-cocktail ventures had focused exclusively on ready-to-drink (RTD) expressions of its flagship spirits brands, including Beefeater, Malfy, Jameson and Malibu.
In November, the group invested US$22m at its production facility in Fort Smith, Arkansas, with a view to improving its RTD manufacturing capabilities in the US.
