- Three-month sales plummet 21.5% to EUR254.1m (US$265.1m)
- Cognac sales drop by 22% in fiscal Q3
- For the nine months to end of December, top-line sinks 17.8% to EUR787.8m
Rémy Cointreau expects its full-year sales for fiscal 2025 to finish down by almost 20% after another dismal quarter to the end of December.
A 21.5% top-line decline in the quarter to the end of December, announced today, follows two consecutive slides in fiscal Q1 and Q2 of 15.6% and 16.1%, respectively. Subsequently, the brand owner entered the last quarter of its fiscal 2025 with a top line almost 18% below the corresponding period a year ago.
The France-based business’s cognac division, which is led by Rémy Martin and accounts for around two-thirds of group sales, tumbled 22% in the three-month period, as Rémy Cointreau pointed to weakness in the key US and China markets. In ‘Asia Pacific’, the company said “overall performance was penalised by a slowdown in indirect sales reflecting caution on the part of distributors”.
Meanwhile, “continued inventory adjustments” in the US affected the cognac unit but a sequential improvement in Rémy Cointreau’s ‘Europe, Middle East & Africa’ reporting region was driven by “solid” growth in the UK.
Elsewhere, the smaller ‘liqueurs & spirits’ division, which includes the likes of Cointreau and Bruichladdich, saw sales drop 20.1% in the quarter, reaching EUR92.5m. The US market suffered as sales “were down sharply due to a high base of comparison”. However, EMEA and APAC both grew, primarily due to the Cointreau brand.
For the full fiscal year to the end of March, the group now expects sales to hit the lower end of the -15%-to-18% range.
Rémy Cointreau attributed its pessimistic expectation to “persistent lack of visibility” on recovery times in the US, as well as a softening market in China. It said it would protect its current operating margin through cost controls and the implementation of a cost cutting plan of over EUR50m, and reiterated its target of full-year operating margin of between 21% and 22%.
The Rémy Martin owner has had a tougher quarter than its peer Moët Hennessy, which posted an 8% drop in sales from calendar Q4 yesterday (28 January).
