B-F Considering Scotch and Irish Acquisitions

Dear Client: "We see the role of acquisitions more about an opportunity to get into new categories, acquire new skills or capabilities that we may not have today, or an opportunity to get route-to-consumer gains," said Don Berg, cfo at Brown-Forman, today at the UBS Global Consumer Conference. One notable gap comes to mind: non-American whiskey. So they plan to "actively pursue" acquisitions in the Scotch and Irish whiskey categories, he said. Note that Beam Inc., which is also heavily