The fortunes of Future Brands rest on the purveyance of potent potables. The company is a distribution joint venture formed by the US's Fortune Brands and Sweden's V&S Group. The Future Brands collaboration was prompted in part by V&S's major push in 2001 to increase distribution of Absolut, which is the top-selling imported vodka in the US. However, both companies maximized the US sales of their top brands, Jim Beam bourbon and Absolut vodka through the joint venture. Fortune Brands (through its Beam Global Spirits & Wine division) holds 51% of the company; V&S holds 49%.