Altia

Altia Oyj or Altia Corporation is a Finnish state-owned corporation based in Helsinki, which produces and imports alcoholic drinks. It holds 40% of the market share in wine and 60% in hard liquor in Finland. The corporation was formed from the production and import sectors of the old alcohol monopoly Alko. Today, Altia is no longer a part of Alko, and Alko itself has only a distribution monopoly.

The most famous products would be those of the Koskenkorva distillation plant, namely Koskenkorva Viina and its international label Finlandia Vodka. Finlandia Vodka, as of the close of 2004, is now wholly-owned by the U.S. spirits company, Brown-Forman. [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_2004_Nov_22/ai_n7071206 Business Wire article on Brown-Forman's incremental purchases of Finlandia] The sale of Finlandia to Brown-Forman Corporation is part of a broader privatization program to reduce Finland's government ownership of state-enterprise. [http://ideas.repec.org/p/ces/ceswps/_1012.html University of Connecticut's Department of Economics]

External links

* [http://www.altia.fi/altia/altianet.nsf/sivut/engtemplate2?OpenDocument&cid=Content98C73-2-2&tree= The Altia subsidiary's website]
* [http://www.altiacorporation.com/Altia/altiacorp.nsf/sivut/AltiaHomePage?OpenDocument&cid=homepage Altia Corporation's website]

Notes