Hennessy

Jas Hennessy & Co., better known as Hennessy Cognac, is a French cognac manufacturer based in Cognac, France. The company sells about 50 million bottles a year worldwide, making it the largest producer of cognac, supplying more than 40% of total cognac supplies in the world. The company is owned by Moët Hennessy, which in turn is owned by LVMH (66%) and Diageo (34%).

The Hennessy Cognac Distillery was founded by Irish Jacobit military officer Richard Hennessy in 1765. His son, James Hennessy, gave the company the name Jas Hennessy & Co in 1813. In the 1970s, Killian Hennessy, a fifth-generation direct descendant of Hennessy, became chief CEO of Hennessy, succeeding his first cousin Maurice-Richard. Killian Hennessy led the company's merger in 1971 with Moët et Chandon, which created Moët Hennessy.

Moët Hennessy merged with Louis Vuitton in 1987, creating one of the largest conglomerates of luxury brands in the world, Louis Vuitton Moët-Hennessy or LVMH. In 1988, a crisis in management led to the takeover of the group by Bernard Arnault, owner of the haute couture house Christian Dior, with the support of the Irish Guinness Brewery. Killian Hennessy remained on the company's advisory board until his death in 2010 at the age of 103.