- Three-month sales decline 16.1% to EUR316.7m (US$228.9m)
- Cognac sales in three months to end of September fall by 20.7%
- Fiscal 2025 half-year down 15.9% at EUR533.7m
- Full-year sales guidance revised from “gradual recovery” to double-digit sales decrease
Rémy Cointreau has warned of “another year of double-digit decline” for its sales, with the company’s fiscal Q2 aping the previous quarter’s top-line slump.
The 16.1% slide in sales from the three months to the end of September, announced today, comes on the back of Q1’s decline of 15.6%. Subsequently, the first half of fiscal 2025 stands at -15.9%, with the rest of the financial year expected to offer no relief.
While the figures in the company’s results statement were virtually all red, the performance of Rémy Cointreau’s cognac business was particularly bleak. The portfolio, led by Rémy Martin, was down in the quarter by almost 21% (Q1 was -12.2%), with the group admitting that the “sequential improvement” of US depletions in Q2 versus the three months prior “remained well below expectations”. Over in the ‘Asia Pacific’ reporting region, cognac is battling with what Rémy Cointreau called a “slowdown in the high-end segment”.
Turning to the ‘liqueurs & spirits’ unit, which includes the Bruichladdich single malt and Cointreau liqueur, the quarter delivered a 4.9% decrease in sales. Despite a “slight rise” for the combined portfolio in ‘Europe, Middle East & Africa’ – France, Germany, Greece and Spain all outperformed the brand owner’s expectations – the ‘Americas’ and ‘Asia Pacific’ dragged, due to weakening consumer trends across South-East Asia and stock adjustments for scotch in China.
Having described the current financial year in July as transitional, Rémy Cointreau struck a more sombre tone in its forecast today. The double-digit falls so far are expected to play out during the rest of fiscal 2025 (to the end of March), with ‘Asia Pacific’ expected to do worse in H2 than in H1. EMEA will continue to display “sluggish consumer trends” going forward, the company said, while the Americas will not switch direction until the final quarter “at the earliest”.
Compared to its rival listed brand owner companies, Rémy Cointreau has had the worst quarter of those that have reported so far: Proximo Spirits, which oversees the Jose Cuervo tequila stable, saw its three-month sales dip by 4.3%, with Pernod Ricard down 5.9% and Moet Hennessy falling by 7%.
