Fortune Brands becomes Beam Inc., sticks to liquor

[October 04, 2011]  LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) -- The world's top bourbon producer is uncorking a new era as a standalone liquor company bearing a time-tested name.

Fortune Brands Inc., the world's fourth-largest premium spirits company, will change its name Tuesday to Beam Inc. Its flagship Jim Beam brand traces its roots to 1795, when Jacob Beam first put his bourbon in a barrel in Kentucky.

Beam President and CEO Matthew Shattock says it was an easy decision to name the company after its best-known brand.

Fortune Brands split into three companies, keeping its liquor business while shedding its golf and home and security units.

The new spirits-only company will be headquartered in Deerfield, Ill., where Fortune was based.

But the company's roots run deep in Kentucky, where more than 850 people work for the company.

[Associated Press; By BRUCE SCHREINER]

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