Major beverage companies are making deals and reaching joint ventures to boost their offerings of spirits priced at $200-a-bottle and up (¥22,000), the fastest-growing segment in the $1 trillion global market for alcoholic drinks.
Louis Vuitton's wines and spirits division Moet Hennessy and rival Campari last month announced an alliance to sell premium beverages online as they jostle for a piece of the $50 billion global high-end spirits market.
Pernod Ricard, which makes Martell cognac, over the past two years has invested in a number of "superpremium" and "ultrapremium brands," including a "significant investment" in Japan's Kyoto Distillery, the producer of ultrapremium gin Ki No Bi. That was followed by the buyout of ultrapremium German brand Monkey 47 gin early last year.