- Sales in last three months of calendar 2022 decline 6% to EUR414.3m [US$451.5m]
- Cognac business down 11% in fiscal Q3
- For fiscal 2023 to date – nine months to end of December – sales increase 10.1% to EUR1.19bn
Rémy Cointreau will be hoping for a positive response to next month’s Super Bowl advert for Rémy Martin, after the group’s Cognac sales in the US tumbled towards the end of last year.
In results for the three months to the end of December, announced today, the company flagged a “very strong double-digit decline” in the US. The performance, which shaped the 6% top-line decline from the quarter – Rémy Cointreau’s fiscal Q3 – was expected by the group, although reference to a “normalisation of Cognac consumption in the US” suggests the brand owner may need to get used to the “unfavourable trend”.
The Cognac division, which accounts for around 80% of group sales, noted some trading-up trends, with Rémy Martin's XO expression and the Louis XIII mark earning namechecks. Elsewhere, China's localised approach to COVID outbreaks caused the Cognac portfolio problems although "robust sales growth" was witnessed in the country in the run-up to the Lunar New Year on 22 January.
Calm came from 'liqueurs & spirits', with a 10.1% year-on-year increase in quarterly sales, thanks to Cointreau in the US, as well as "a steep rally" for the Global Travel Retail channel in Asia Pacific. The unit is dwarfed, however, by Rémy Cointreau's Cognac operations.
Sales in the first six months of fiscal 2023, to the end of September, were up by just over 20%, with the group even then referencing normalisation of consumption levels.
"As life returns to normal in most regions, overall consumption is likely to settle in at 'new normal' levels (well above those oserved in 2019/20) over the coming quarters, particularly in the US," the company said. "At the same time, growth should be tempered by high bases of comparison."
Rémy Martin's Super Bowl ad, which was announced earlier this month, will run nationwide during the first quarter of the game on 12 February.
Rémy Cointreau's official Q3 & YTD results announcement.
