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"As just-drinks.com announced yesterday, US-based Brown-Forman Corporation has added the premium vodka, Finlandia, to its portfolio, in a joint venture with the Finnish alcohol conglomerate, Altia Group.The new company will be called Finlandia Vodka Worldwide Ltd. (FVW), with Altia Group holding a 55% stake and Brown-Forman the remaining 45% at a cost of FIM 522m ($83m). FVW will officially launch as an Altia subsidiary on 1 August 2000.It will take control of the worldwide marketing rights for the Finlandia brand and will employ Brown-Forman as Finlandia&amp;#39;s distributor in all countries outside of Finland, the Nordic and Baltic states, the Czech Republic and Poland. Brown-Forman has been the brand&amp;#39;s distributor in the US since 1996.Altia owns Primalco, the producer of Finlandia, which will continue to make the brand and sell it to FVW under a long-term supply contract. Under the agreement Altia has the right to sell its remaining 55% interest in FVW to Brown-Forman in the future.Altia&amp;#39;s president and CEO, Veikko Kasurinen said: &amp;quot;The incorporation of Finlandia vodka is part of the process of implementing Altia Group&amp;#39;s strategy and developing its group and ownership structure&amp;amp;#8230;Our joint venture with Brown-Forman, the world&amp;#39;s ninth biggest alcoholic beverage company, opens opportunities for us to strengthen Finlandia Vodka&amp;#39;s distribution by utilising our partner&amp;#39;s sales and distribution network and knowledge.&amp;quot;The FVW board will include Veikko Kasurinen, president and CEO of Altia; Ossi Loikkanen, Altia&amp;#39;s CFO; and Leif Ekstrom, an Altia director. The US contingent will be Michael V. Cheek, president of B-F Beverages Worldwide North America Group, and Don Berg, president of B-F Beverages Worldwide Advancing Markets Group.The new group will be structured as below:"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<https://www.just-drinks.com/news/brown-forman-pays-83m-for-slice-of-finlandia_id75010.aspx>