Brown Forman (BF.B) FY2026 results: revenue $3.9 billion, down 1.2% on the year

Brown-Forman manufactures, distils, bottles, imports, exports, markets and sells a wide variety of beverage alcohol products under its own brands. It was incorporated in Delaware in 1933, successor to a business founded in 1870 as a partnership and later incorporated in Kentucky in 1901. It employs about 4,900 people on six continents, about 1,900 of them in the United States and 700 in Louisville, Kentucky, where the head office sits. Citing International Wine & Spirit Research, the filing describes the company as the largest American-owned premium-plus spirits company. It is a controlled company under New York Stock Exchange rules, because the Brown family owns more than 50 percent of the voting stock. The financial year ends on 30 April.

The brands

The portfolio runs to more than 40 spirit and ready-to-drink cocktail brands, beginning in 1870 with Old Forester Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whisky, the founding brand. Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey is the most important of them, and the filing describes it, on IWSR 2025 data, as the number one selling American whiskey in the world. The Jack Daniel's range extends across Tennessee Honey, Tennessee Apple, Tennessee Blackberry, Tennessee Fire, Gentleman Jack, the Single Barrel Collection, the Bonded Series, Sinatra Select, American Single Malt and aged expressions at 10, 12 and 14 years, plus Jack Daniel's ready-to-drink. Around it sit Woodford Reserve and Old Forester bourbons, King of Kentucky, el Jimador and Herradura tequilas, New Mix ready-to-drink, Diplomático rums, Gin Mare, Fords Gin, Chambord Liqueur, Slane Irish Whiskey and the Glendronach, Benriach and Glenglassaugh single malt Scotch whiskies.

Markets

The products sell in over 170 countries. The United States is the most important market at 42 percent of total reported net sales in fiscal 2026, down from 44 percent in 2025 and 45 percent in 2024, with the other 58 percent outside the country. Mexico was 8 percent, Germany 6 percent, Australia 5 percent and the United Kingdom 4 percent, with everything else together at 35 percent. The largest single customer was about 10 percent of consolidated net sales in fiscal 2026, and no other customer reached that level.

Route to consumer

The distribution model varies by market, depending on the local law and regulatory framework for beverage alcohol, the company's assessment of the market's long-term attractiveness and competitive dynamics, the relative profitability of the distribution options available, the structure of the retail and wholesale trade there, and how developed the portfolio is locally. In the United States, which generally prohibits spirits manufacturers from selling direct to consumers, it sells to distributors or, in states that directly control alcohol sales, to state governments. Outside the United States there are three models: owned distribution, partner and government-controlled. The company owns and operates distribution companies for Australia, Belgium and Luxembourg, Brazil, Czechia, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Poland, Slovakia, South Korea, Spain, Taiwan, Thailand, Türkiye and the United Kingdom, selling directly to retailers or wholesalers in those markets and across much of the travel retail channel. Elsewhere third parties distribute the brands, generally under fixed-term contracts, and in Canada the products are sold to provincial governments.

Making it

Maturation rules differ by country and by category, and the company complies with each. Bourbon and Tennessee whiskeys must be aged in new, charred oak barrels under United States federal and state regulation, and the company typically ages its whiskeys at least three years. Mexican authorities set minimum ageing for tequila at three years for extra añejo, one year for añejo and two months for reposado; Irish whiskey must mature at least three years in a wood cask on the island of Ireland, and Scotch whisky at least three years in oak casks in Scotland. The principal raw materials run from agave, barley, corn, molasses, rye, sugar and water for the distilled spirits, through neutral spirits, sugar, whiskey and wine for liqueurs, to aluminium cans, cartons, closures and labels for packaging. A restructuring plan approved by the board in fiscal 2025 reduced the workforce by about 12 percent and closed the Louisville-based Brown-Forman Cooperage, whose facility and related assets were sold during fiscal 2026.

From Brown-Forman's annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended 30 April 2026. The filing

Written from the 10-K filed 12 June 2026: read the full 10-K.