Brown-Forman warns of tariff uncertainty

Shares of Jack Daniel’s-maker Brown-Forman plunged more than 18% on Thursday after the company reported quarterly earnings that came in below analyst estimates, weighed down by the impact of tariffs and weak discretionary spending on alcohol.

“While our results did not meet our long-term growth aspirations, we made important progress in an exceptionally challenging macroeconomic environment,” CEO Lawson Whiting said in the company’s earnings release.

Here’s how the company performed for its fiscal fourth quarter of 2025, compared with Wall Street expectations, according to LSEG:

• Earnings per share: 31 cents vs. 34 cents estimated
• Revenue: $894 million vs. $967.4 million estimated

For the fiscal fourth quarter, Brown-Forman reported sales of $894 million, down 7% from the same quarter a year prior. Net income of $146 million, or 31 cents per share, was down 45% from $266 million, or 56 cents per share, a year earlier.

While net sales for Brown-Forman’s whiskey products — Jack Daniel’s and Woodford Reserve — were flat for fiscal year 2025 compared with the prior year, the company’s tequila and ready-to-drink portfolios declined 14% and 6%, respectively.

For fiscal year 2026, the company expects declines in the single-digit range in both organic net sales and organic operating income.

“We anticipate the operating environment for fiscal 2026 will be challenging, with low visibility due to macroeconomic and geopolitical volatility as we face headwinds from consumer uncertainty, the potential impact from currently unknown tariffs, and lower non-branded sales of used barrels,” the company said.

While Brown-Forman says it’s unable to measure potential tariff impact, analysts at Bernstein estimate that a 50% tariff on U.S. whiskey sold in the EU would result in a 10% hit to Brown-Forman’s earnings before interest and taxes, or EBIT.

Bernstein also noted that in a recessionary environment, distillers typically underperform brewers, which makes Brown-Forman more vulnerable than beverage peers like Constellation Brands, Molson Coors and Anheuser-Busch.

In recent months, Canadian liquor stores began removing Jack Daniel’s products and other U.S. products in response to President Donald Trump’s tariffs. In March, Brown-Forman’s Whiting called the removals “worse than a tariff.”

And the Trump administration this week also doubled the tariffs on steel and aluminum imports to 50%, impacting Brown-Forman’s and the broader sector’s canned ready-to-drink products.