Fifth-generation Brown to head Old Forester

Fifth-generation Brown family member Campbell Brown will be the new president of the Old Forester brand beginning May 1, the first family member solely responsible for the label since company founder George Garvin Brown.

Louisville-based liquor maker Brown-Forman Corp. announced the appointment Tuesday for its original brand.

Brown-Forman is devoting more resources to the brand, building a $35 million distillery on Main Street's Whiskey Row in downtown. It also has a new deal with Churchill Downs for the brand to be the official bourbon for Kentucky Derby mint juleps, replacing Early Times.

The Old Forester brand is experiencing sales growth for the first time in decades, said an announcement from the company best known for producing Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey and Woodford Reserve bourbon.

But Old Forester has always been important to the family, Brown said. An Old Forester bottle sits atop the company headquarters on Dixie Highway. The favorite drink of former company chairman and chief executive officer Owsley Brown II, who died in 2011, was an Old Forester Bourbon with ice and a little water in a tall glass.

"I feel we have actually picked a perfect time to marshal a significant number of resources ... to create something that's going to be really special for the sixth generation that's coming up," Campbell Brown said in a telephone interview. "They won't just see that bottle, that wonderful Forester icon on top of the headquarters. But I imagine they'll be seeing a lot more of it in liquor stores and in bars and everywhere that we would want to be seen."

Brown, 47, is a fifth-generation descendant of the Brown who founded the company in 1870 and whose signature remains on the Old Forester bottle.

He is the brother of company Chairman Geo. Garvin Brown IV. Their father is the late George Garvin Brown III, a company director; their grandfather is the late George Garvin Brown II, a chief executive and chairman of the company; their great grandfather was Owsley Brown, a chief executive for the company; and the founder is their great great grandfather.

The company said Campbell Brown is one of 11 fifth-generation family members working at the company.

Campbell Brown most recently managed Brown-Forman's wine and spirits portfolio for Canada and the U.S. Midwest. He also is a member of the family's shareholders committee and is on the board of the DendriFund, the environmental sustainability charitable foundation established by Brown-Forman. Brown is one of 11 fifth-generation Brown family members currently employed by the company.

While Old Forester is now his brand, Brown said it already was his drink.

"I worked overseas for a long time so it really wasn't my drink for about six years," he said. "I was living in places like India and the Philippines and Turkey and you just couldn't get Old Forester."

As such, the international market is a growth opportunity for the brand, Brown said.

In the interview, Brown said that distillery announcement last year sparked his interest in taking on a role with the brand, but serious talks started before the holidays. Then a few weeks ago Chief Executive Officer Paul Varga and Chief Brands and Strategy Officer Lawson Whiting, to whom Brown will report, approached him to formalize the new position.

"Being able to bring the family name into this ... especially for the brand that helped found this company and where our family's name is etched on the glass, certainly from a personal standpoint meant a lot to me for sure."

Reporter Gregory A. Hall can be reached at (502) 582-4087. Follow him on Twitter at @gregoryahall.