Taliera Completes Acquisition of Red Eye Brands

25/03/08 Taliera Holdings announced that it has acquired Red Eye Brands of Bryan, Texas. Red Eye is Taliera's first brand acquisition and provides entry into the global beverage, specialty, natural and organic food markets. Taliera is an acquisition holding company formed for the purpose of acquiring operating businesses and brands in the global beverage industry.

"This acquisition for Taliera is our first step in creating value for our shareholders, our customers, and our team," said J. Smoke Wallin, CEO, a veteran of the global beverage industry. "We intend to grow our company by acquiring strong, well-recognized brands from larger consumer products companies as well as smaller regional companies like Red Eye. Many non-core brands lack the focus of senior level management or strong brand support. Our strategy is to take full advantage of these opportunities by providing each acquired brand with the marketing support and senior level attention necessary to enhance the brand's market position, leverage our industry relationships to expand its distribution and successfully launch line extensions and new products."

"We are excited by the opportunity the Red Eye Brand presents," said Don Hammond, EVP of Market Operations for Taliera and President of Taliera Texas Brands. "Red Eye has been a strong Texas brand for almost 25 years and has had great success in select markets around the US. Taliera will be able to activate this brand with the wine, spirits and beer distributors across the nation." Mr. Hammond, who began his career with P&G and Gallo and has extensive experience in both large Spirits brand companies and wholesalers, continued "When we looked closely at the Red Eye footprint, we realized it was being distributed in 35 states, by some of the finest distributors in the industry, all of whom we know. Red Eye simply needs focused sales and marketing support to gain additional distribution in national accounts, large retailers and control states."

U.S. retail sales of gourmet, specialty and premium foods and beverages are growing at much faster rates than those of the overall food and beverage industry, surging 10.9% to $59.0 billion in 2007 and posting a compound annual growth rate of 11.1% for the 2003-2007 period. Within the total cocktail mix business, industry estimates for market size are over $750 million annually. The specialty, gourmet and all natural segment of cocktail mixes is growing at significantly higher growth rates than the overall market. With over 39 million gourmet consumers in the US today, these trends are expected to continue for the next decade.

Red Eye Brand Bold And Sassy Bloody Mary Mix is a complete Bloody Mary Mix - with natural ingredients. It is hand crafted, in small batch production. Red Eye has four great tasting flavors - Original, Limon, Habanero and Horseradish. Red Eye not only makes cocktail mixes, but produces some of the finest quality salsas and sauces under contract for gourmet and specialty food retailers and manufacturers.

"I love this Brand. When it came time for my family to sell the Red Eye Brand Company, we looked long and hard for a strategic buyer who would build upon the foundation we have built over the years. Taliera was a perfect fit. Their long-term view of the category, deep industry experience and access to significant resources sealed the deal for us versus all the other interested parties," said Bob Phillips, successful entrepreneur and owner of Red Eye for the past 10 years.

Taliera's wholly owned subsidiary, Taliera Texas Brands, LLC has retained all of Red Eye Brands employees and will invest in and continue to operate the Texas production facility. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

"In these uncertain economic times, the global beverage industry provides a safe haven for intelligent investment," said Mr. Wallin. "We believe tough market conditions create opportunities if you know where to look. Taliera is focused on this intently."