- Final-quarter sales decline 8% to EUR1.67bn (US$1.75bn)
- Top-line in calendar 2024 also down 8%, at EUR5.86bn
- Spirits (including cognac) slide 14% in 12 months, champagne & wines dip 3%
Moët Hennessy has brought the curtain down on a particularly tough year, posting an 8% sales fall for 2024.
The scene was set for the wine & spirits arm of LVMH in October, when sales from the first nine months of the year were reported down by 8%. A top-line decline of the same amount in Q4, announced late yesterday, resulted in 2024 finishing at -8%.
The three months to the end of December were impacted by what the company called the “post-Covid normalisation of demand” for the champagne and cognac categories that commenced in 2023. Indeed, both Moët Hennessy’s ‘champagne & wines’ and ‘cognac & spirits’ divisions registered quarterly sales decreases of 5.7% and 22.2% respectively, albeit with foreign exchange fluctuations factored in.
For the full year, the units were down by 3% and 14% in organic terms; Of the few signs of optimism, rosé wine displayed “solid momentum”, with the company’s Château d’Esclans performing well in the US and accelerating its international expansion, while the worldwide launch in August of the SirDavis new-to-market American whiskey was described as having been “successful”.
The flagship Hennessy cognac brand, however, suffered as a result of “weaker local demand” in 2024. More broadly, China was highlighted as having been “a more challenging market environment” throughout the 12 months, suggesting the first quarter of this year – the home of the Lunar New Year public holiday – will be similarly bleak.
Looking back longer term, ‘cognac & spirits’ sales surfed very close to 2020 levels, when the pandemic was at its worst. ‘Champagne & wines’, meanwhile, fell back from its 2022 and 2023 highs.
Next month, Moët Hennessy will bid farewell to its CEO of seven years as Philippe Schaus makes way for Jean-Jacques Guiony. Also joining the business is one of the sons of LVMH head Bernard Arnault, Alexandre, who will take on the newly-created position of deputy CEO.
