- Three-month sales – to end of March – falls 19% to EUR196.8m (US$224.2m)
- Fiscal full year declines 18% to EUR984.6m
- Sales of Cognac marks – including Rémy Martin – down 32.8% in Q4, -21.9% in full year
Rémy Cointreau has seen the US “rebound sharply” towards the end of its current fiscal year, but group sales have stubbornly retained their negativity.
In the closing three months of fiscal 2025, to the end of March, the company’s top-line was down 19% year-on-year. Subsequently, full-year sales finished at -18%, hitting the level forecast by the brand owner in late-January.
The fourth quarter was one of “very contrasted trends”, according to the group; on the downside, China was described as having been a “harsh market” in the period, thanks to a combination of high year-prior comparatives, the later timing of Chinese New Year and “the inaccessibility of Duty-Free” in the country, which according to reports in February, has been closed to cognac category replenishment since December.
Over in the US, meanwhile, “very strong sales growth” was noted, marking a reversal of the ‘Americas’ region’s struggles in the first nine months of fiscal 2025.
Rémy’s cognac division was down in sales terms by almost one third (-32.8%) in Q4 and by 21.9% in the full year. Despite the upbeat noises surrounding the US rebound – where cognac sales rose by the “mid-teens” – the latest performance did not build on the unit’s -22% sales showing in fiscal Q3. Indeed, the cognac operations registered a “very strong double-digit sales decline” in ‘Europe, Middle East & Africa’ in the quarter, due to a “highly promotional” environment for the category in many of the region’s markets.
The company’s other owned-brands unit, ‘liqueurs & spirits’, had a more enjoyable Q4 as sales increased by 16.1%. While the division, which includes the Cointreau liqueur, The Botanist gin and Bruichladdich scotch whisky brands, posted a lift in North America, China stood out thanks to a “very strong double-digit” increase led by Cointreau.
Despite the unit’s upbeat Q4, its full-year sales finished at -9.6%.
“2024-25 will be a year of transition, with highlights including the finalisation of destocking in the Americas,” the brand owner said. “2025-26 will make a resumption of the trajectory set for 2029-30 [of] high single-digit annual growth in sales on average and on an organic basis.”
Also in today’s results announcement, Rémy acknowledged the current suspension of US tariffs on imported goods – +20% from the European Union and 10% each from Barbados (home to the group’s Mount Gay rum brand) and from the UK. The investigation by China’s Ministry of Commerce into alleged cognac dumping in the country, meanwhile, has been extended to 5 July, the company added. “If these provisional duties (+38.1% on cognac imports) are confirmed, the group will trigger its action plan to mitigate effects starting in fiscal 2026.”
Details of what the action plan comprises were not disclosed.
Earlier this month, current CEO Eric Vallat tendered his resignation, with his departure scheduled for “this summer”. Board chair Marie-Amelie de Leusse will assume the role on an interim basis.
