Campari Considers More Acquisitions

Campari is purchasing the Sicilian spirits company Fratelli Averna, and said it is considering investments in additional deals the rest of this year and on into 2015.

The deal to buy Fratelli Averna, which produces the bitters Averna and Braulio and makes over a third of revenue from exports, values it at $143 million.

While other Italian firms have become targets for foreign buyers, Campari has hit the acquisition trail to broaden its stable of drinks such as whiskeys and liqueurs and lure more customers outside its traditional European markets.

Just over a month ago it made a deal to buy Canada’s Forty Creek Distillery.

Campari Chief Executive Bob Kunze-Concewitz told Reuters the Averna deal “strengthens our critical mass in Germanic markets quite a bit”. He said three quarters of all exports of the Averna brand go to Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

“In the long term we also expect America, particularly the United States and Argentina, to be significant contributors,” he said. About 70 percent of Italian liqueurs and bitters are sold abroad, mainly in Argentina, Germany, Brazil, the United States and Brazil.