Having Made Billions on Tequila, Patrón Creators Turn to Vodka

When Bacardi Ltd. bought Patrón Spirits International AG for $5.1 billion in 2018, the partners who put together the tequila juggernaut weren’t sure what would come next.

“We had that cliché: Boy, we’d love to get the band back together sometime,” recalls Lee Applbaum, then Patrón and Grey Goose chief marketing officer and now president and chief operating officer of Round 2 Spirits. “Over the years that followed, we were all doing our own things, but keeping a watchful eye on the industry.”