While seemingly every female celebrity is trying to carve a slice of the lucrative beauty/skincare/makeup industry, the real money seems to be in liquor. Specifically, celebrity-owned and branded liquor labels. George Clooney was obviously one of the biggest names to do this – he and Rande Gerber started Casamigos tequila years ago, seemingly when they were drunk on vacation in Cabo. They ended up selling the Casamigos label/brand for $1 billion in 2017, four years after they started it. What a return on an investment, right? And it was basically just their pet project, their little boutique (ish) high-quality tequila label. Anyway, other celebrities obviously took note. In 2018, Ryan Reynolds bought a big stake in Aviation Gin, and he’s done a lot of work behind-the-scenes with the brand, including masterminding that brilliant social media ad with the Peloton actress. And it paid off, big time.
It seems that more and more celebrities are diversifying their portfolios by getting into the liquor and wine industry, and given that Ryan Reynolds just sold his Aviation American Gin brand for an estimated $610 million it’s easy to see the appeal. Diageo—the world’s largest spirits and beers producer—has acquired the gin brand co-owned by the actor in a deal that could be worth up to $610 million. As part of the deal, Diageo will pay $335 million upfront with an additional $275 million possible payday depending on Aviation’s performance over the next 10 years.
In 2018, Reynolds purchased a stake in the gin brand, founded in 2006, and as part of this new deal will retain an “ongoing ownership stake.” In addition to Aviation Gin, Diageo also acquired Astral Tequila, Sombra Mezcal and TYKU Sake from the brand’s parent company Davos Brands LLC.
In a press release announcing the acquisition, Reynolds wrote, “A little over two years ago, I became an owner of Aviation Gin because I love the taste of Aviation more than any other spirit. What I didn’t expect was the sheer creative joy learning a new industry would bring. Growing the brand with my company, Maximum Effort Marketing, has been among the most fulfilling projects I’ve ever been involved with. I want to thank Diageo for their incredible team and passion. We’re so excited for the next chapter of Aviation Gin, which, I promise, will require just as little reading.”
If I could go back and do it all again and somehow be rich and famous that time around, I would totally invest in a start-up liquor label and just sit back and wait for the money to come rolling in. Seriously, owning a big stake in a liquor label really does seem like the best “side project” business in Hollywood. Now, Ryan isn’t going to see even half of that $610 million figure – he just owns a stake in the label, and clearly, he still wants to be involved in the company. But this is probably the easiest money he’s ever made.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid.
Good for him. Still think he and his wife try too hard all the time on socials.
Used to like them, now they’ve become annoying.
Interesting, I see them as try hard in a good way, at least him. He seems honestly passionate about his projects.
Well yes, he’s surely passionate about his business and job, but my feeling is they are both very self conscious about their public images and everything they do/post on social media is very well thought and crafted. Just my two cents of course.
He’s always trying to hard to stay relevant.
think of how many ex-plantations they can buy.
Fair play to him!
Well damn!😮😮
We should all be as lucky to have such profitable hobbies. He was worth his weight in PR gold..
There’s also The Rock with Teramana tequila if you need another for future reference. And I think there was Diddy with Ciroc and Jay-Z with Ace of Spades?
Just the rich getting richer because they have the money to invest And don’t need to scrape by like the rest of us.
To be fair, I think Ryan and Blake donate a lot and I hope they continue.
That’s exactly what I thought. He seems nice and not evil like Bezos/Musk, but do we really need more wealth consolidation? NO.
Good for him. I wish I had his energy and connections and charm! I’d take 5-20 million Canadian and piss off to a farm somewhere with my dogs, get some pigs, chicken and goats. I like him and Blake together. They make each other happy it seems and that’s rare in these times.
👍👍👍👍
I dont get it,what do you mean he wont see even half the money?
He doesn’t/didn’t own it 100%, just an investor..
I guess if I were a celeb with investment money to spare looking for a business to shill I’d try to choose something that wasn’t associated with increased illness and mortality, domestic violence, and drunk driving, but that’s just me. I’m such a pill.
Linda McCartney had the right idea with veggie foods but it probably didn’t net the big bucks the way liquor does.
That’s a pretty hefty return for him. Like, serious vow renewal on every plantation in the U.S. return.
Hmm… this makes the 700K he’s pledged to increasing diversity look like pocket change. Better than nothing, I guess. The rich are getting richer. The rest of us get the crumbs.
My mom drinks Ciroc 😂. She was a Grey Goose gal for so long but she loves Ciroc. Never gets old when I see it.
I hope he takes a big chunk of his earnings and does something very good for the world with it.
If we learned something from this pandemic is that we should all try to diversify and find side gigs.