Pernod Ricard clear to purchase Polish vodka

The French beverage group Pernod Ricard will acquire Polmos Poznan, the producer of Wyborowa, Poland's best-known vodka brand, reports the Financial Times. Agros Holding controlled by Pernod Ricard, will give up foreign marketing rights for about 20 vodka brands in exchange for approval to buy 80 per cent of Polmos Poznan, the producer of Wyborowa, recently claimed Agros Holding. Disputes over ownership of the brands had hampered the Polish state's ability to find buyers for Poznan and more than a dozen other Polmos distilleries. The proposed deal, initiated by Poland's treasury and agreed in principle by both sides, should be concluded by Sunday, when a negotiating exclusivity period for the Poznan acquisition expires. "This clears up any ambiguity, which was bad for both our company and the market,"​ said Andrzej Szumowski, a spokesman for the Polish holding. "And the Polmoses now have a clear situation that will allow the treasury to fetch the best possible price."​ Trademark disputes have clouded privatisation prospects for vodka - one of the few export products for which Poland is internationally renowned - for years. Pernod Ricard took control of Wyborowa and other prestige brands when it invested two years ago in Agros, a food processor and trader that held the rights under communism. Last year, lawmakers lobbied by the Polmoses, denied Agros of those rights under a provision of a new industrial property law. After protests by Pernod Ricard and European Union diplomats, President Aleksander Kwasniewski referred the provision to Poland's Constitutional Tribunal, which ruled against it in March 2001. Source: Financial Times​