As told to Stephanie Clifford
His pals in the liquor business thought Sidney Frank was crazy when he started importing a German herbal elixir, called Jägermeister, in 1972. The drink was selling about 500 cases a year. But Frank had a plan, revolving around promotion techniques the liquor industry had never seen. He employed a squadron of young women--dubbed Jägerettes--to patrol bars and sell drinks, and he threw parties for high visibility. In the first half of 2005, Sidney Frank Importing sold 2 million cases of Jägermeister.
Frank's second big success was the French vodka Grey Goose, which he introduced to the market in 1997 and sold last year to Bacardi for more than $2 billion. At 85, he is enjoying his money--his fleet of cars, chefs, and golf instructors attests to that--but he's also looking for new deals. He's rounding out Sidney Frank Importing with wines from around the world and Corazon de Agave tequila; he's introduced an energy drink called Crunk; he just bought a magazine, called Travel Savvy. Retirement, he says, is ages away.
