Why the Jygsaw deal isn' puzzling.

(From Off Licence News)

It's just four years since Steve Perez, the boss of VK RTD firm Global Brands, told Off Licence News that he liked "being a thorn in the side of the big corporations ".

It was something of a surprise then when the biggest drinks corporation of the lot, Diageo, decided to place the sales and marketing for two of its minnow spirits brands - Myers's rum and Goldschlager - into Global's portfolio in the UK.

The manoeuvre was part of a fledgling movement by big brand owners to hive off relatively low sellers to third-party agencies.

Scottish & Newcastle placed its Courage ale portfolio into a minority-owned joint venture with Wells & Young's last year, and followed it up with another JV for a clutch of second stream ale and cider brands at the start of this.

That deal saw a group of former senior S&N executives come together as Jygsaw Brands and in turn form a joint venture, Heritage Drinks, with S&N to manage a line-up comprising McEwan's, Younger's, Newcastle Exhibition, Woodpecker and Scrumpy Jack.

In a technically complex arrangement, the sales and marketing are licensed to Jygsaw, and the production is then contracted back to S&N. Jygsaw is also handling the marketing, but not the sales, of Newcastle Brown.