The billionaire heirs to the Jack Daniel’s fortune are reportedly embroiled in a bitter household feud — with a pair of insurgent brothers blasting their kin and firm brass as a $15 billion hostile takeover bid looms over the storied whiskey maker.

More than 130 members of the Brown clan acquired a seven-page broadside from W.L. Lyons Brown III and his brother Stuart Brown accusing the board of Brown-Forman, which owns Jack Daniel’s, of “rewarding failure” as the firm’s shares have lost roughly 60% of their worth in current years.

“The numbers are stark and undeniable,” the bourbon bros wrote in the July 10 missive, according to the Wall Street Journal.

“Brown-Forman’s stock price has fallen from the mid-$70s per share to the mid-$20s per share over the past three years, eliminating billions of dollars of generational wealth for the Brown family and all other shareholders.”

Members of the Brown household, whose descendants have managed Louisville-based Brown-Forman for more than 150 years, pose for a multigenerational household photograph in Louisville, Ky. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The household revolt has erupted as Louisville-based Brown-Forman — the 156-year-old firm behind Jack Daniel’s and Woodford Reserve — fends off an unsolicited $15 billion money supply from crosstown rival Sazerac, the family-owned maker of Buffalo Trace bourbon.

CEO Lawson Whiting is also headed for the exits as gross sales have stalled and the Brown clan — whose collective fortune Forbes has put at $11 billion — squabbles over the future of the household empire.

At the heart of the drama is Lyons Brown, 66, a colourful fifth-generation inheritor who was pressured to go away Brown-Forman in 2002 following a conflict with his uncle, then-CEO Owsley Brown II, according to the Journal.

Lyons Brown once reportedly ruffled feathers by flipping an organizational chart upside down at a gross sales assembly and urging staff to problem typical knowledge.

Jack Daniel’s stays Brown-Forman’s flagship model as the 156-year-old spirits big grapples with weaker gross sales, a household revolt and an unsolicited $15 billion takeover supply from rival Sazerac. Getty Images

Lyons Brown later began his own booze enterprise, competing against the household firm, and co-founded a now-defunct honey enterprise that touted “low-disturbance” beekeeping.

“The letter speaks for itself,” Lyons Brown advised the Journal.

Now he and his brother are focusing on the kin who wield energy over Brown-Forman.

Their broadside accused the board and other relations of protecting shareholders in the darkish about failed merger talks with French liquor big Pernod Ricard and questioned why the firm entertained that deal while rebuffing Sazerac.

“If the Pernod Ricard transaction was Plan A, what is Plan B? The Company is in crisis,” the brothers fumed in their missive.

They also skewered the technique for Jack Daniel’s, evaluating the iconic Tennessee whiskey to Baskin-Robbins because it is offered in so many flavors.

Brown-Forman chairman Marshall Farrer, 55, a fifth-generation Brown inheritor, is in search of to preserve household unity as tensions flare among the spirits big’s descendants. Marshall Farrer / Linkedin

The descendants of founder George Garvin Brown still management the publicly traded firm through more than 70% of its voting Class A shares.

Wolf Pen Branch, a household funding car fashioned to unify the sprawling clan’s voting energy, controls about 60% of the shares by itself — successfully giving it the energy to block a sale.

Lyons and Stuart Brown never joined Wolf Pen, leaving the dissident brothers with restricted sway unless they can persuade other kin to be a part of their revolt.

Wolf Pen has already rejected Sazerac’s takeover proposal, saying it did not align with its members’ imaginative and prescient for Brown-Forman’s future. The firm’s board subsequently said the supply wasn’t “actionable.”

But Sazerac appealed immediately to Brown household shareholders on July 24, saying its supply represented a 40% premium to Brown-Forman’s current buying and selling worth.

“Our offer remains open and our conviction is only enhanced,” Sazerac wrote.

Three days after the Brown brothers circulated their letter, Whiting advised the board he would step down once a successor is discovered.

Weakening demand for Brown-Forman’s spirits has hammered the firm’s inventory, which has shed roughly 60% of its worth over the previous 5 years. Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

The turmoil comes as Brown-Forman battles weakening demand. The firm reported $3.9 billion in gross sales for its newest fiscal 12 months while internet earnings fell 18%, according to the Journal.

The firm also laid off 12% of its roughly 5,400 staff last 12 months, and closed its Louisville cooperage.

Trying to hold the clan collectively is chairman Marshall Farrer, 55, a fifth-generation descendant and the tenth Brown member of the family to maintain the title.

The household once printed a “Family Constitution” on bottles of Old Forester pledging “long-term growth and independence through the family’s control” and “trust, respect and diplomatic candor” among kin.

That pledge is now getting jolted as jarringly as a couple pictures of Jack’s with out a chaser.

“Sometimes you think of the Southern company that’s very nice and generous with each other,” Farrer advised shareholders in July. “There’s a lot more toughness going on.”