Passoã joint venture finalized

French liquor company Rémy Cointreau and Dutch Lucas Bols have founded a joint venture for liquor brand Passoã. The Dutch company will lead the joint venture, which targets an 18 million euro annual turnover. 

“Iconic premium brand”

It took only 1.5 months for both Lucas Bols and Rémy Cointreau to finalize their intentions to create a joint venture for passion fruit liquor brand Passoã. The French-Dutch joint venture will be based out of France, while the Dutch company will lead the company and have full operational and financial control. Lucas Bols will invest 5 million euro to give the joint venture the necessary funds to operate, while it can also acquire all of Rémy Cointreau’s shares in the joint venture when it so desires. The deal should be finalized before the end of the year. 

“We are ecstatic to have been given the opportunity to expand the Passoã brand, one I have known for 25 years”, Lucas Bols CEO, Huub van Doorne, said. “It is another iconic premium brand in our portfolio of global brands and it strengthens our position in several important markets. Not only that, it also helps us empower our current distribution network. We also believe the brand has room for growth, particularly in some very specific markets like the United States.”

“Refocus on ultra premium”

Valérie Chapoulaud-Floquet, Rémy Cointreau Group’s CEO, is “convinced the Passoã brand will flourish and reach its full potential under Lucas Bols’ guidance. The joint venture also enables Rémy Cointreau to speed up its shift in focus, onto its ultra premium brands, the core of its group strategy.”

Passoã, launched in 1986, is bottled in the French city of Angers and sold in more than 40 countries. 85 % of the brand’s turnover comes from Western Europe, while the remainder comes from North America and Japan. The joint venture should generate an estimated 18 million euro annually.