Fortune Brands was a holding company founded in 1969 as American Brands and later renamed in 1997 and split apart in 2011. The corporate headquarters was in Deerfield, Illinois in the United States. The company historically had a significant diversity of products. It announced on December 8, 2010, that it planned to focus on its liquor business, and to spin off or sell other parts of the company - including home furnishings and hardware and other golf products. The company then sold its Titleist and FootJoy product lines to FILA Korea. On October 3, 2011, it split the remainder of its business into two publicly traded companies: Fortune Brands Home & Security (NYSE: FBHS) and Beam Inc. (NYSE: BEAM). On Jan. 14, 2014, Japan's Suntory made a US$16bn offer to buy Beam, Inc.
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History
The American Tobacco Company was founded in 1890. In the late 1960s, with health concerns seen as posing an increasing threat to the tobacco business, management decided to diversify into other fields and changed the corporate name to American Brands, Inc. Brown & Williamson acquired the tobacco division in 1994.
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Former divisions
Tobacco
American Tobacco Company was the original division of American Brands. American Tobacco was sold to British American Tobacco in 1994.
Insurance
American Brands acquired Franklin Life Insurance in 1979. It sold the company to American General in 1994.
ACCO
In 1987 American Brands acquired ACCO, a holding company which owned several office supply subsidiaries. Stapler manufacturer Swingline, Inc., which American Brands had acquired in 1970, was combined with ACCO. In 2005, the company spun off ACCO to shareholders, and immediately thereafter ACCO merged with General Binding Corporation. This merged company is now known as ACCO Brands.
Golf Division
The Acushnet Company, purchased in 1976, became American Brands' golf division. It produced golf balls, shoes, and clubs under the Pinnacle Golf, Titleist, FootJoy and formerly Cobra Golf (now under the ownership of Puma Sport) trademarks. The Acushnet Rubber division, which was Acushnet's original business, was sold off in 1985. Cobra Golf was sold to Puma AG in March 2010, and the other golf brands were sold to Fila in 2011.
Home and hardware
This division, which had annual sales of over $4 billion, included such businesses as Waterloo Industries, Masterbrand Cabinets (and its various subsidiary cabinet lines), Moen faucets, Fypon, Therma-Tru doors, Simonton windows, Master Lock, American Lock, and Vista Window Company, Western Division. Many of these operations passed to Fortune Brands Home & Security when the company was split.
Spirits
Fortune Brands had a stable of well known spirits brands, led by Jim Beam.
In July 2005, Fortune Brands and French spirits company Pernod Ricard acquired over 25 additional spirits and wine brands from British holding company Allied Domecq. In November 2007, Constellation Brands announced a purchase of Fortune Brands' wine operations for $885 million USD, a transaction that added 1,500 acres (6.1 km2) of vineyards, several major brands such as Clos du Bois, and 2.6 million cases per year of "super-premium" class wine production.
After the other product lines were sold and spun off, the remaining spirits business became Beam Inc..
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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