- Sales from three months to end of March fall 9% to EUR1.3bn (US$1.48bn)
- Slight deterioration on FY 2024’s -8% top line
- ‘Cognac & spirits’ operations tumble 17%
Moët Hennessy has booked another quarter of falling sales, admitting to a “slow start” to 2025.
The three months to the end of March delivered a 9% decline on the corresponding period a year earlier, when sales were down by 12%. The performance represents a fifth consecutive quarter of top line decreases for the Hennessy cognac and Moët & Chandon champagne owner.
Breaking out its results by division, the company, which is 34%-owned by Diageo, noted a 17% slump in sales from its ‘cognac & spirits’ division. Demand for cognac in the US and China, the category’s two biggest markets, continues to be “soft”, while uncertainties remain about the US’s tariff policies, Moët Hennessy added.
Meanwhile, ‘champagne & wines’ slipped by just 1% in value sales, although the “unfavourable phasing of price increases in Japan’ were highlighted as having contributed in the quarter. The group’s Provence rosé wines, however, had a good start to 2025, although specific details were not disclosed.
Owner LVMH claimed to have shown “good resilience” over the three months, although this was in reference to the wider group, which was down in sales terms by a lesser 3%.
The latest results coincided with a changing of the guard at Moët Hennessy as Philippe Schaus stood down as CEO at the start of February, to be replaced by Jean-Jacques Guiony. One of LVMH head Bernard Arnault’s sons, Alexandre, also started in the newly-created position of deputy CEO of the business at the same time.
