Diageo Sells Windsor Global Whisky to South Korean PT W Co
The owner of the popular Jack Daniels whisky brand has sold its South Korean whisky distillery to PT W Co. Diageo has reached an agreement to release its Windsor Global whisky unit to the South Korean beverage company.
There was no information available on the purchase terms of the shares. PT W Co. acquired 100% of the shares of Windsor Global from Diageo. Diageo operates its Korean operations as Diageo Korea and Windsor Global.
According to data, PT W Co. is owned and operated by the South Korean firm Pine Tree Investment & Management Co. The company will assume responsibility for the distillery in the ensuing months.
Diageo Always Wanted to Sell Winsor Global
John O’Keeffe, president of Asia Pacific, global travel, and India for Diageo, said:
“This transaction reflects Diageo’s disciplined approach to capital allocation and further highlights our continued track record of active portfolio management. We remain fully committed to Korea and our international spirits and beer business.
“Our position in the market remains strong as premiumization trends persist and consumer interest in categories like international whisky continues to grow.â€
Diageo has been trying to sell off the distillery for some time now, albeit without success.
A Korean publication reported late last month that Hitejinro was considering a move for Diageo’s whisky business. Nonetheless, nothing else was heard of the news and it disappeared with the rumor mill. Last year, Diageo failed to sell Windsor Global to Bayside Private Equity and Metis Private Equity. Only to fail again.
Windsor Global was scheduled to be offloaded to the consortium in March 2022 for Won200bn ($147.6m), but the deal was canceled in September 2022.
Should the deal have been successful, some of the popular brands from Diageo would have changed hands as well. Besides Windsor blended Scotch, which includes 12- and 17-year-old whiskies, Bayside and Metis were set to take over the W Series of whiskies, which includes W Signature whisky and its 35%-abv variants.
