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About Us

STOCK PLZEŇ-BOŽKOV (STOCK PLZEŇ) IS THE MARKET LEADER IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC WHERE WE HAVE BEEN PRODUCING THE FINEST TRADITIONAL SPIRITS AND BITTERS FOR MORE THAN 85 YEARS.

Our wide range of products includes many well-known and well-loved brands, most notably Fernet Stock, the country's most popular spirit.

In addition to our growing range of Fernet products, Stock Plzeň offers many other brands, including our famous Amundsen vodka, Božkov Tuzemský rum and Stock slivovices.

With a portfolio of more than 40 products, Stock Plzeň leads the market in terms of spirits consumed. Our position reflects our ability to nurture our long-standing successful brands while refreshing our portfolio with new market-inspired, innovative products such as Fernet Stock Citrus, which was designed to appeal to female consumers.

Stock Plzeň supports and actively promotes responsible drinking.

Find out more about our responsible drinking programmes.

History

The history of Stock Plzeň starts in the Italian port of Trieste, which at the time was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

It was there that, in 1884, Lionello Stock formed the Camis & Stock company. The flagship product was its cognac which, with a popularity and quality that allowed it to bear the label 'medicinal', competed head on with the French. Such was their success that Camis & Stock became established as one of the largest companies of its kind in Europe in the 1920s.

After the end of the First World War, however, the Italian liquor factory's formerly domestic markets became foreign markets, and its exports struggled with customs, quotas and other barriers. So Lionello Stock decided to form affiliates in the individual countries that had arisen in the wake of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire.

In 1920, Stock bought an existing distillery in Božkov and formed a subsidiary called Stock Cognac Medicinal. At first, the products were transported from Trieste to Božkov and merely bottled there. At the time, the company employed approximately 15 manual workers, four clerks, a procurist and a director. Shipments from Trieste gradually came to an end and the plant began operating independently. The business activities of Stock Cognac Medicinal H. Planner Božkov u Plzně grew rapidly and thanks to the high quality of its products the company enjoyed ever-increasing numbers of consumers.

But life was not easy for Lionello Stock's Plzeň distillery. Although the firm posted great results in 1929, it was fully hit by the economic crisis sweeping the World in the 1930s. Then, in 1939 it was seized by the Nazis as Jewish property before passing into national administration after the War. In 1947, it was briefly returned to its Italian owner. Briefly indeed, for the Božkov plant was nationalised in 1948, as were most companies in Czechoslovakia. As part of a state-owned company, the profits from the production of quality spirits were used to subsidise other, less lucrative production. As a result, the company could not invest in any expansions and Fernet Stock, whose popularity increased sharply in the sixties and especially in the seventies, was in short supply until the 1990s.

After the revolution, the Božkov plant became an independent public limited company and began investing its entire profit in production, thus managing to greatly increase the production of the Fernet Stock. Today, Stock Plzeň is the largest spirits producer on the Czech market, holding an approximately 34% share.

In 1993, the distillery's original owner Stock Trieste became its majority shareholder. Two years later the company became part of the Eckes group, the largest spirits and fruit juice producer in Europe.

Stock Plzeň experienced turbulent times throughout the 1990s however, it become the number one Czech company in the volume of spirits sold, and was able to offer its customers entirely new products that instantly won unprecedented popularity. In 1997, Stock Plzeň launched Fernet Stock Citrus, which within two years became the second most popular Czech alcoholic drink, Fernet Stock being number one. Other exceptionally successful new products have emerged, such as Magister, Vodka Amundsen and its various low-alcohol flavours, and Slivovice Stock from the legendary Prádlo distillery near the town of Nepomuk. Practically every year several new brands are added to the company's portfolio, Stock Plzeň thereby responding to the latest market trends.

Most recently, in late 2007, Stock Plzeň was acquired by Oaktree Capital Management and consolidated into the international business that the wider Stock Spirits Group is today.

Our heritage

Going back more than 100 years

1884
1884

Camis & Stock founded in 1884 by Lionello Stock in Trieste, then part of the Austro-Hungarian empire and subsequently Italy

1906
1906

Polmos Lublin founded in Poland

Operations expanded across Italy and into the Czech Republic and Austria

1920
1920

One of the largest companies of its kind in Europe by the 1920s

1927
1927

Start of Fernet Stock production in Czech Republic

1939
1939

Established an outpost in New York in 1939

1948
1948

Polmos Lublin company nationalised under Communist government

Camis & Stock company was nationalised and incorporated into the associated distilleries and vinegar factories in Prague

1950
1950

The flagship brand Żołądkowa Gorzka was created

1991
1991

Camis & Stock became an independent joint stock company

2001
2001

Polmos Lublin privatised by Polish government

2006
2006

Oaktree Capital Management acquire Polmos Lublin

2007
2007

Oaktree Capital Management acquires Eckes & Stock and its businesses in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Italy, Slovenia, Austria and the US

2008
2008

Merger of Polmos Lublin and Eckes & Stock to create Stock Spirits Group

Stock Spirits Group  becomes the number one spirits company in Poland

2009
2009

Stock establishes own distribution businesses in Croatia and Bosnia  & Herzegovina

Żołądkowa de Luxe and 1906 declared the two fastest growing vodka brands in the world

2010
2010

Lubelska declared fastest growing liqueurs brand in the world

2012
2012

Acquisition of Imperator in Slovakia

Acquisition of German distillery assets

2013
2013

Shares listed on the London Stock Exchange

Distribution agreement for Czech Republic signed with Diageo

Distribution agreements for Poland, Croatia and Bosnia signed with Beam Suntory

Completion of €3 million investment in Stock Polska manufacturing plant

2014
2014

Celebration of 130th annivarsary with the launch of Special Edition Stock Prestige

2015
2015

Opened new, purpose built Lublin-based logistics centre

2016
2016

Acquisition of Nordic Ice vodka, Prazka vodka & Dynybyl gin from Bohemia Sekt s.r.o.

Distribution agreement for Italy & Slovakia signed with Distell International

2017
2017

Acquisition of 25% equity interest in Quintessential Ireland Whiskey Ltd

Distribution agreement for Slovakia signed with Beam Suntory

Distribution agreement for UK signed with Distell International

2019
2019

Acquisition of Bartida in the Czech Republic

Acquisition of Distillerie Franciacorta in Italy

Distribution agreement for Italy signed with Beam Suntory