- Sazerac has agreed to buy Swansea-based Au Vodka in a deal reportedly worth about £500m.
- Founders Charlie Morgan and Jackson Quinn could each receive more than £100m.
- Au Vodka recorded £82.8m in turnover and £5m in pre-tax profit in the year to April 2025.
A Welsh vodka brand that began with two friends in Swansea is heading for a reported £500m takeover by US drinks giant Sazerac, more than a decade after one of its founders became famous for an entirely different reason.
Sazerac, the company behind brands including Southern Comfort, Buffalo Trace and BuzzBallz, has agreed to buy Au Vodka, known for its gold bottles and flavoured spirits. The deal is subject to regulatory conditions and is expected to complete within weeks.
The price has not been officially disclosed, but the deal has been reported at around £500m. Sky News has reported that Au Vodka founders Charlie Morgan and Jackson Quinn could each receive more than £100m from the sale.
For Morgan, the deal comes a long way from his first brush with international attention.
He was 17 when he became known around the world as the Swansea City ballboy involved in an incident with Chelsea player Eden Hazard during a League Cup semi-final in 2013. Hazard was sent off after kicking the teenager as he attempted to retrieve the ball.
Two years later, Morgan and childhood friend Quinn started Au Vodka.
The gold bottles became the business
The company built its identity around brightly flavoured vodka, distinctive gold packaging and a social media-heavy marketing strategy.
DJ Charlie Sloth invested in the business in its early years and helped introduce the brand to a wider network of celebrities. Au Vodka subsequently attracted attention through associations with figures including Floyd Mayweather and Jake Paul.
The strategy appears to have translated into significant sales growth. Au Vodka's accounts show turnover increased by 27.3 per cent to £82.8m in the year to April 2025. The company reported a £5m pre-tax profit and employs more than 80 people.
It has also moved beyond bottles of vodka, expanding into ready-to-drink products as the market for canned alcoholic drinks grew. Au Vodka is now reported to be the UK's second-largest ready-to-drink brand by sales, behind BuzzBallz, which happens to be owned by its prospective buyer.
That overlap could make the acquisition particularly interesting for Sazerac. Rather than simply adding another vodka label, the US group would be taking control of a British brand that has built a following through social media, celebrity marketing and ready-to-drink products.
Sazerac said the acquisition would help it deepen its presence in the UK. The company has been expanding its spirits portfolio through acquisitions, including vodka brand Svedka and Texas-based Western Son Vodka.
For Au Vodka, the proposed sale would mark a significant change from its origins in Swansea.
Morgan and Quinn built the company from a local start-up into a business generating more than £80m in annual turnover. The founders have not publicly discussed the reported value of the deal, while Sazerac has confirmed the agreement but has not disclosed the purchase price.
The story has therefore moved well beyond the football incident that first put Morgan in the spotlight.
The next chapter will be about what Sazerac does with the brand. The US group says the deal will strengthen its UK presence, while Au Vodka brings with it a recognisable identity, a growing ready-to-drink business and a customer base built largely through digital marketing.
The reported £500m price tag would put the Swansea company among the more notable British drinks brands to be picked up by a global spirits group in recent years. Whether Sazerac can keep the brand's distinct Welsh identity while pushing it further into international markets will now be one of the questions surrounding the takeover.
