On January 15, Stoli Group USA announced that it was filing for Chapter 7 of the bankruptcy process — or liquidation. The vodka company was also moving its portfolio’s bourbon brand, Kentucky Owl, into liquidation.
Stoli Group USA LLC and Kentucky Owl initially filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the final quarter of 2024. According to the brand’s press release, it shared it was facing “unprecedented external pressures” for over 25 years.
Stoli Group shared it faced multiple legal battles with Russia over the country’s ownership of the brand. As the political landscape of Russia changed, things only got worse for the beleaguered vodka brand.
“After the company publicly condemned the invasion of Ukraine and voiced its support for peace, the Russian government designated Stoli as an ‘extremist organization’ in Russia,” the brand shared. “This was swiftly followed by the confiscation and nationalization of Stoli’s state-of-the-art distillery, an asset integral to the company’s global production footprint.”
Stoli touched on the devastating cyberattack, which proved to be catastrophic to the brand’s global distribution footprint in 2024.
In Dec. 2024, Fast Company reported that Stoli initiated the Chapter 11 process in the United States. The legal battle with Russia certainly put the company in a precarious position alongside the criminal charges the country filed against Stoli Founder Yuri Shefler.
The ransomeware attack severely damaged Stoli’s IT systems, and the brand had to “operate manually,” for months.
“Two months ago, the company was the victim of a malicious cyberattack, which knocked out its ERP (enterprise resource planning) platform and operational systems, since when it has been operating its global business entirely manually while the systems are rebuilt,” said Stoli Group CEO Chris Caldwell. “This has been a year of extraordinary challenges. From geopolitical targeting to operational setbacks, Stoli has been tested on every front.”
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