Cognac sales confirm 2015 recovery

The Bureau Interprofessionel du Cognac (BNIC) reported record shipments for Cognac last year in both volume and value terms, confirming the category’s recovery.

The BNIC reported record shipments for Cognac last year confirming the category’s recovery

According to the latest data from the BNIC, Cognac shipments reached nearly 168.9 million bottles in 2015 with increases in both volume (8.5%) and value (21.3%).

Furthermore, turnover reached €2.6 billion for Cognac in 2015.

The increase in demand is being driven by “all major Cognac markets”, but none more so than North America, which “continues to grow”.

Shipments of Cognac grew 13% in North America and 39.2% in value, equating to 67.7m bottles throughout last year – a result attributed to the on-going improvement of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) signed between the US and Mexico in 1994.

Demand for Cognac is also strengthening in the Far East with volume and value up 8.4% and shipments exceeding 50.6m bottles in 2015.

Shipments in Europe also showed positive signs of recovery, with volumes marginally higher at 0.6% and a net growth in value of 15.9% – meaning more than 39.8m bottles were shipped last year.

Across the rest of the world, emerging marketing such as South Africa and Australia also reported growing shipment levels, with a 13.4% rise in volume and 27.6% increase in value.

VS Cognac expressions continued to grow at 8% in volume and 27.8% in value, and accounted for almost half of all global shipments.

VSOP improvements were also displayed in the latest figures, having grown 13.1% by volume and 28.2% by value, thus together with VS variants offset the decline of older Cognac expressions, which dropped 4.7% in volume despite an 8.1% growth in value.

Figures from 2014 showed signs of recovery for the Cognac category, despite further declines in global sales.

Cognac has experienced a turbulent few years following the Chinese government’s anti-extravagance campaign.