
Lucas Bols, the Dutch owner of spirits and liqueur brands including Bols and Pisang Ambon, today announced plans to list on the Amsterdam stock exchange in a EUR125m IPO. Here, courtesy of Lucas Bols and just-drinks, is a rundown on the company:
- Lucas Bols dates back to 1575, and has more than 20 brands across a range of spirits products, sold in more than 110 countries
- It has a portfolio of premium and super-premium global brands, such as Bols Liqueurs and Bols Genever, alongside regional brands such as the banana-flavoured liqueur Pisang Ambon and the genever Bokma
- Other global brands include Damrak Gin, Galliano and Vaccari, while regional brands also include Hartevelt and Coebergh
- Lucas Bols has the number one position in liqueur ranges worldwide (excluding the US) and is the world’s largest player in the genever segment
- The company describes itself as “asset-light” and outsources much of its production process
- The production JV Avandis in the Netherlands operates the blending and bottling process for the majority of the countries in which Lucas Bols sells its products
- In the US, the company distributes its products through its subsidiary, Lucas Bols USA
- In the Netherlands, its products are distributed by its joint venture with Edrington, Maxxium Nederland
- CEO Huub van Doorne led a buyout of Lucas Bols from Remy Cointreau in 2006, in partnership with ABN AMRO Capital (AAC), the private equity arm of Dutch bank ABN AMRO
- Van Doorne was previously the Remy executive in charge of revitalising the Bols brand after the French company bought Lucas Bols in 2000
- After the takeover, he and his management team took a 25% share in Lucas Bols, with AAC owning the remainder
- In an interview with just-drinks in 2012, van Doorne said Bols was one of the few international brands growing in Japan, up double-digits over the previous four to five years