Corporations: Slight Change of Recipe

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Louisville's Brown-Forman Distillers Corp. has never cared much for blends in either its whiskey or its top management. Ever since Founder George Garvin Brown began bottling Old Forester in 1870, the company has stuck to top-grade bourbons and to a Brown in charge of its headquarters in Kentucky's bluegrass country. Last week Brown-Forman varied the recipe. To succeed third-generation President George Garvin Brown, who is moving to the chairmanship on the retirement of his older (by six years) brother W. L. Lyons Brown, 60, the company picked Executive Vice President Daniel L. Street, 62.

A onetime Louisville attorney, Street was Brown-Forman's general counsel for nine years before he became a vice president in 1947. Since then, he has been one of the Brown brothers' chief lieutenants in the one area where their taste is as sharp as it is for bourbon: profits. By sticking with such high-quality, wide-profit-margin labels as Early Times and Jack Daniel's Old Time Tennessee Sour Mash Whiskey, the company has prospered even in an industry dominated by such behemoths as Seagram (1965 sales: $1 billion). With sales of $154 million for the twelve months that ended in April, Brown-Forman distilled record profits of $10.3 million.

Brown-Forman started diversifying in 1956, when it paid $20 million for the 54-bbl.-a-day Jack Daniel Distillery, which has been located in the same quiet mountain glen near Lynchburg, Tenn., for a hundred years. The Daniel output has, under Brown-Forman management, been doubled, though it still far from meets the demand for what some drinkers regard as the best sippin' whiskey of all. The company now sells Usher's Scotch, Bols liqueurs and imported wines as well, and Street's main job will be to look out for other likely acquisitions.

The Brown family, which bought up Partner John Forman's interest in 1902, still owns 74% of the company stock, worth $70 million. Chairman George Garvin's cousin and heir apparent, Robinson S. Brown Jr., 49, succeeded Street as executive vice president. In line behind him are two young great-grandsons of the founder, now undergoing an aging process in the company's executive ranks.