Pernod Ricard is a French company that produces alcoholic beverages. The company's eponymous products, Pernod Anise and Ricard Pastis, are both anise-flavoured pastis apéritifs and are often referred to simply as Pernod or Ricard. The company also produces several other types of pastis. It is the world’s second-largest wine and spirits seller. After the banning of absinthe, Pernod Ricard was created from the Pernod Fils company, which had produced absinthe. Pernod Ricard owned the distilled beverage division of the former corporation Seagram until 2006, along with many other holdings. In 2005, the company acquired a British-based competitor, Allied Domecq PLC. In 2008, Pernod Ricard announced its acquisition of Swedish-based V&S Group, which produces Absolut Vodka. In 2013, Pernod Ricard joined leading alcohol producers as part of a producers' commitments to reducing harmful drinking. As of 2015, India is the company's third largest market by value. In December 2018, Elliott Management Corporation purchased a 2.5% stake in Pernod Ricard.
History
Pernod
1797 –, a Swiss distiller, opens his first absinthe distillery in Switzerland.
1805 – Maison Pernod Fils is founded in Pontarlier, Franche-Comté, eastern France, by Henri-Louis Pernod and begins production of the anise-flavored liquor known as absinthe.
1850 – Henri-Louis Pernod dies.
1871 – Distillerie Hémard is founded near Paris.
1872 – Société Pernod Père & Fils opens in Avignon.
1915 – Production and consumption of absinthe is prohibited in France.
1926 – All 3 distilleries merge to form Les Établissements Pernod.
1951 – Pastis 51 is launched.
1965 – Takeover of Distillerie Rousseau, Laurens et Moureaux, producer of Suze liquor since 1889.
Pernod Ricard Armenia - Armenian subsidiary and owner of Yerevan Brandy Company
Pernaud Ricard Hellas - subsidiary in Greece
Pernod Ricard India - Indian subsidiary
Brands
Pernod Ricard owns a wide variety of beverage brands worldwide. These include: ; Whisky ; Vodkas ; Other As of 26 July 2005, the brand portfolio expanded to include former Allied Domecq products: Pernod Ricard previously owned the non-alcoholic chocolate beverage Yoo-hoo, which was acquired from a group of private investors in 1989. Pernod Ricard also previously owned the carbonated citrus drink Orangina. Both brands were sold in 2001 to Cadbury Schweppes.
The Havana Club brand was lost to its founders, the Arechabala family, due to the 1959 Cuban Revolution, and an ongoing legal battle opposes the claimed trademark owners in the US to the joint venture between Pernod Ricard and the Cuban State-owned companyCorporación Cuba Ron. The Havana Club trademark remains unchallenged elsewhere in the world, having been validated by court decisions in a number of countries other than the US.
According to the NGO Alliance anticorrida, Pernod Ricard is the major funder of bullfighting in France, financing bullfighting clubs and sponsoring corridas despite the :fr:Opposition à la corrida#.C3.89volution en France|opposition of a majority of French citizens to blood sports. There are few corridas in France where the bulls are killed in the Spanish type. Most native bull fights do not harm the animals: rosettes attached between the horns are plucked with a claw instrument, and the animals are returned to the pasture.
