That Viral Gold Vodka Brand Just Sold For £500 MILLION — And Wait Until You Hear Who Founded It 🍾

Stop everything, because the gold vodka bottles you've seen all over your Instagram feed just made someone VERY rich.

Au Vodka — the viral Welsh spirits brand with the distinctive gold bottles — is being sold for a whopping £500 million to Sazerac, the company that owns Southern Comfort and BuzzBallz. Yes, really.

According to BBC Wales, Swansea-based founders Charlie Morgan and Jackson Quinn are set to pocket over £100 million EACH from the deal. Not bad for a business they started in 2015, right?

Wait, Charlie Morgan? THAT Charlie Morgan?

Here's where this story gets absolutely wild.

If you're a football fan, you might remember Morgan as the 17-year-old Swansea City ball boy who got kicked by Chelsea's Eden Hazard during a 2013 League Cup semi-final. The incident went viral (Hazard was sent off), sparked massive debate, and basically made Morgan internet-famous overnight.

Fast forward a decade, and that same kid has turned a vodka brand into a half-billion-pound empire. The glow-up is REAL.

Morgan and his childhood friend Jackson Quinn founded Au Vodka when they were in their early twenties, and two years later brought in DJ Charlie Sloth as an investor — whose celebrity contacts helped turn those gold bottles into the party accessory.

The Gold Standard 💛

The branding was genius: distinctive gold bottles that looked incredible on Instagram, celebrity endorsements (YouTuber Jake Paul literally got an Au Vodka bottle tattooed on him as a publicity stunt), and a ready-to-drink canned range that exploded during the pandemic.

The gold bottles became a fixture at poolside parties in Ibiza and Dubai clubs — basically anywhere people wanted to flex on social media, BBC Wales reports.

And the company didn't just talk the talk. In 2025, they opened a new Swansea headquarters complete with a car park full of gold-wrapped cars and a nine-hole mini golf course with golden obstacles. Because when you're selling luxury vodka, you commit to the aesthetic.

From Viral Moment To Viral Brand

Morgan and Quinn took the business seriously despite all the bling. Au Vodka became the second-biggest ready-to-drink brand in the UK behind... BuzzBallz. You know, the company that's now buying them.

Speaking to BBC Wales in 2025, Morgan said he had his sights set on America: "If you asked a 25-year-old target market consumer in America, would they know Au? Probably not yet. So there's still so many more people who don't know about us. And I think we're still driven to try and take over the world a little bit more."

Looks like taking over the world just got a whole lot easier with half a billion in the bank.

The Tea ☕

• Au Vodka is selling to Sazerac (owner of Southern Comfort and BuzzBallz) for £500 million
• Founders Charlie Morgan and Jackson Quinn will each make over £100m from the sale
• Morgan is the former ball boy who was kicked by Chelsea's Eden Hazard in 2013
• The gold bottles became Instagram staples at luxury parties in Ibiza and Dubai
• Au Vodka is the UK's second-biggest ready-to-drink brand after BuzzBallz

The Hazard Reunion

In possibly the best redemption arc ever, Morgan and Hazard reunited in 2023 for a YouTube video where they laughed about the infamous kick. Ten years after the incident that made him famous, Morgan's business was already booming.

Now he's cashing out for nine figures. We are NOT okay.

The deal will allow Sazerac "to deepen its presence in the UK," according to BBC Wales, while Morgan and Quinn get to enjoy being very, very rich.

From viral moment to viral brand to half-billion-pound exit — Charlie Morgan's journey is absolutely wild, and honestly? We're obsessed.

Sources:

• BBC Wales: Viral vodka brand Au set to sell for £500m to BuzzBallz owner

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Would you start a vodka brand after going viral? Or is this the most iconic glow-up you've ever seen? Sound off below!