Closing out our week of senior executive previews of the year ahead, it’s the turn of Jean-Etienne Gourgues, CEO of Pernod Ricard’s Scotch whisky unit, Chivas Brothers.
Global Drinks Intel: What was your overriding takeaway from 2022?
Chivas Brothers CEO Jean-Etienne Gourgues: The overriding takeaway for me was the resilience of our company and the Scotch category more broadly. 2022 was a challenging year globally: Geopolitical instability, continued supply chain issues, rising energy prices and the increased cost of living certainly posed a challenge to our industry.
Our response to these changes, which I think was reflected in our fiscal 2022 figures, demonstrated the importance of being adaptable to volatile market conditions.
GDI: Which industry developments surprised you the most last year?
JEG: I wouldn’t say I was necessarily surprised, but it’s encouraging to see so many initiatives and commitments to carbon neutrality being put forward by companies, big and small. I believe this concerted sustainability effort is a positive legacy of COP26 in 2021.
At Chivas Brothers, we’ve continued our journey towards carbon-neutral distillation with further investments in Mechanical Vapour Recompression (MVR ) fan technology at a number of our distilleries. Distillation remains one of the most energy-intensive processes in producing Scotch, which means any serious long-term solution to reduce emissions in our industry has to start with distillation.
We’re also laser-focused on industry-leading sustainable packaging initiatives to achieve our goal of reducing our carbon emissions by 50% by 2030. At present, 95% of our product packaging is recyclable and 98% is plastic-free. By 2025, 100% of our packaging will be recyclable, reusable, compostable or bio-based. Packaging improvements across our strategic brands will lead to a saving of more than 1,400 tonnes of plastic a year.
GDI: Which consumer group will be your main focus in 2023?
JEG: There’s no single consumer group that we focus on. Our approach varies across our markets and brands. Our broad strategy is aimed at shaping the future of Scotch by opening up the category to new audiences across the globe. We do this by leveraging the strengths of our brands through our innovative campaign work steeped in music, fashion, sports or gaming to empower communities, break boundaries and cross cultures.
Our Chivas brand, in particular, has done a stellar job in reaching out to new demographics and moments of consumption and we’re looking forward to what 2023 has in store.
GDI: Which of the brands in your portfolio do you expect to grow the fastest this year?
JEG: I believe a combination of increased demand for premiumisation and luxury spirits and the resurgence of Global Travel Retail will position Royal Salute – and our single malts – for continued growth in 2023, which we expect to continue the globalisation of the brand with stellar growth, for example in Brazil and India. Last year, Royal Salute recorded 38% growth with sustained performance in Taiwan and Korea. That’s reassuring for future growth – diversification between geographies, balanced between mature markets and emerging markets.
GDI: What’s your biggest business worry for the months ahead?
JEG: We shouldn’t take the resilience of Scotch for granted. We need to continue to safeguard its future and futureproof our workforce. Our vision is to open up Scotch to new audiences, lead the way in promoting sustainability in our industry, continue innovating and build a more engaged and representative team. I’m proud that we’re putting that ambition into practice already – our latest recruitment drive across operations and manufacturing attracted a large number of younger applicants, more than 900 across 140 positions, which is the highest number we’ve seen in recent years.
These team members are all starting work this month so it’s an exciting moment to be able to watch that transformation take effect in our business.
